Venice to be FULLY SUBMERGED under sea THIS CENTURY, shock report predicts
THE city of Venice could disappear within a century thanks to rising sea levels, experts have warned.
Stunning city of Venice will DISAPPEAR by 2100
The iconic city along with much of Italy’s Adriatic coastline in the north east of the country is at risk of being submerged in less than 100 years as sea levels continue to rise.
New research from Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology anticipates a rise in sea levels in the region of five feet by the turn of the century, putting much of the coastline at risk.
The sea level rise is a rapid acceleration on what has come before, as over the past 1,000 years the level has been upped by just one foot, with the researchers blaming greenhouse gasses.
To understand how quickly sea levels are rising, the researchers studied millstone – large circular stones that were used to grind grain in the Stone Age – quarries along the coastline of the Mediterranean.
Venice could be underwater by 2100
The researchers examined millstones along the coast
The report reads: “The coast of the Mediterranean provides several remnants of ancient coastal quarries, which are now useful to study sea level change occurring during the last millennia,' the scientists said in a research paper.
“Millstones quarries were exploited with same quarrying techniques from rocks like beachrocks, sandstones or similar lithologies, were shaped to be suitable to grind olives, seeds and wheat, to produce oil and flour, or to break apart soft rocks.”
Much of the north east coast will be affected by rising sea levels
From their research, which examined how the positioning of the stone quarries changed over each millennium, the researchers were able to deduce which areas in Italy were most at risk.
The consequences of global warming on glaciers and sea levels
In total, 33 areas were under threat of being submerged by the end of the century, with, alongside the North Adriatic coastline, the Versilia in Tuscany, Fiumicino in Lazio, plains around the Po, Fondi, Sele, and Volturno rivers all at risk, along with the coasts of Catania, Cagliari and Oristano.