YUROP

1204 readers

2 users here now

A laid back community for good news, pictures and general discussions among people living in Europe.

Other European communities

[email protected]

Other casual communities:

Language communities

Cities

Countries

founded 9 months ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

168

[Map] The Netherlands in 1300 vs 1900-2000 (dormi.zone)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The sea level was higher in 1300, so it's a combination of a retreating sea and reclaiming land.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

See, that would be contrary to my expectation, because hotter Earth = higher sea level, at least until all ice is melted.

So, I looked it up and that also seems to be the case for the Netherlands. In fact, their land levels are even falling, too, because they lost a lot of peat over the centuries:

Source: https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/04/23/land-subsidence-in-the-netherlands/
(Not the greatest source, but seems to match up with everything else I found.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Your expectation is correct, but perhaps your knowledge is lacking. Around the 13th century the earth was the hottest it has been until recently. It's called the Medieval Warm Age. Sea levels were higher and started retreating around 1300.

Edit: To add, this cites some sources. It's not a massive change in sea level obviously, something between 1 and 2 m.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Hmm, interesting. The graph I posted would be a bit too linear, wouldn't it.

But it's actually not the entire Earth that was affected by the MWP, but rather just the North Atlantic region (the Wikipedia article specifically says so).
I guess, some of the Northern polar caps melted, so maybe it did affect global sea levels anyways. Or it might have been something like the land heating up, causing stronger winds from sea to land and that just pushed more water towards the Netherlands. Honestly, I'm just spitballing at this point...