A tiny island claimed for years by India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal has disappeared beneath the rising seas, scientists in India say.
The uninhabited territory south of the Hariabhanga river was known as New Moore Island to the Indians and South Talpatti Island to the Bangladeshis.
Recent satellites images show the whole island under water, says the School of Oceanographic Studies in Calcutta.
Disputed Bay of Bengal island 'vanishes' say scientists
Hard to believe it was worth fighting over if it floods so easily:
New Moore – or South Talpatti – sat in the Sundarbans mangrove delta in the mouth of the Hariabhanga River that divides India and Bangladesh.
It is thought to have been created by a cyclone only about 40 years ago – and was never more than two metres above sea level at its highest point.
There were no permanent structures on the island, but in 1981 the Indian Navy planted its national flag there.
New Moore Island is no more as climate changes ends ownership dispute
The seas haven't risen two metres (roughly 6ft.), what apparently has happened is that the river is getting higher. Sea levels have been rising about 5 mm a year, according to the Times Of London article. That means the seas have risen a couple of inches in the last decade. Still, climate change causes other changes besides rising sea levels, and this island appears to have been one of the earliest victims.
But this clearly isn't a sign that the world is getting warmer, because it's not an island in Washington, DC.
(h/t Naked Capitalism)
2 comments:
That's just too awesome. Kinda reminds me of a Terry Pratchett novel, actually, wherein two nations go to war over an island that rises overnight and then vanishes beneath the waves once again.
Kind of sad that real life leaders act as stupidly as those in a comic fantasy novel, isn't it?
Yes, it is. The thing was formed in a cyclone. It clearly wasn't made of anything really solid.
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