The difficulty is what you measure against? E.g. if the mean sea level "rises" 1 metre in Manila Bay, is that because the sea rose 1m, or the land sank 1m?Originally Posted by lastlid
I believe modern satellite tecnology can answer that question, the rise in sea levels of 3mm p.a. is measured from satelite I believe, so presumably they can also measure if Manila is sinking, and how much?
Historically this was done by comparing data around a land mass I think, so for example if we noticed over 100 years the sea level at Dover appeared to rise and the sea level at John o'Groates (?) appeared to fall, we would say the UK was tilting so the South was sinking. In other words (oversimplification) the sea level was steady but the land moved.
