#PILGRIMS LAND AT PLYMOUTH ROCK FREE#

Snopes, 'No, that Plymouth Rock meme doesn’t disprove rise in sea level,' July 8, 2022 'Furthermore, in large coastal storms, flood risk is increasing as water penetrates inland further and to higher elevation.'Įmail exchange with Gary Griggs, a distinguished professor of earth sciences in the earth and planetary sciences department at University of California, Santa Cruz’s Institute of Marine Sciences, July 18, 2022Įmail exchange with Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University and the director of Princeton’s Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment, July 18, 2022 'So-called nuisance or fair-weather flooding has increased in frequency, meaning that high tides now flood streets on a regular basis along the coast in many states - up to 10 times as frequently as 50 years ago,' he said.

Rising sea levels cause problems, some of which have already begun, Oppenheimer said. Oppenheimer also said global mean sea levels are rising annually and that the rise is accelerating. The warmer the planet gets, the more sea water expands, and the more ice melts, all adding to sea level.' 'Sea-level rise is directly connected to a warming climate. 'This is relatively simple science, and there are no alternate interpretations or facts,' Griggs said. That rate is accelerating over the past decade, the rate has increased to about 19.7 inches per 100 years, he said. Satellite data, which has been used to measure sea level rise since 1993, indicates an average rate of global sea level rise of about 13.9 inches per century, Griggs said. These records show that sea levels have risen about 11.4 inches in the past century. Gary Griggs, a University of California, Santa Cruz, professor of earth sciences, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been tracking sea levels relative to land in Boston, near Plymouth Rock, for 100 years. Local sea level rise can significantly differ from the global mean sea level rise because of land sinking or tectonic activity, he said. 'But all it can indicate is local sea level, not ‘sea levels’ generally or the global mean rise,' Oppenheimer said.

#PILGRIMS LAND AT PLYMOUTH ROCK FREE#

Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton University professor of geosciences and international affairs, said a single, stationary object 'anchored in bedrock and free of tectonic activity' can sometimes be used to measure local sea levels. DxgQQXxu3J- MA Sharks 🦈 November 15, 2016įurthermore, experts said the rock is not a useful landmark for measuring sea level changes. Pilgrims would have got their feet wet landing on #PlymouthRock today. The rock has also been underwater before, during extreme weather and exceptionally high tides called king tides. Visitors stand in a pavilion while looking at Plymouth Rock, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Nov. Although the veracity of the elder’s claim is unknown, Plymouth Rock 'quickly became an American icon,' the site added. Plymouth’s tourism website said in 1741 an elder identified Plymouth Rock as the exact landing spot. The National Museum of American History site refers to the story of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock as 'oral tradition,' and said no contemporary accounts of the landing mention a rock. 'The first references to Plymouth Rock are found over 100 years after the actual landing.' Neither mentions any rocks in their account of the landing,' said Plymouth’s Pilgrim Hall Museum’s website.

There are two primary accounts of the Pilgrims’ Plymouth landing, but 'both simply say that the Pilgrims landed. The Mayflower anchored in Plymouth Harbor a few weeks later.) (The Pilgrims first landed in Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Nov. There is no evidence the rock proudly displayed under the portico in Plymouth today is the exact place where Pilgrims first disembarked the Mayflower in Plymouth, much less that it was found at sea level. There’s no evidence the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock

These Plymouth Rock memes do not prove that sea levels remain unchanged the posts are false and misleading. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

On July 12, a Facebook user shared another meme featuring two pictures of Plymouth Rock side by side, one labeled '1620 at sea level' and the other '2022 still at sea level.' And despite what some social media users have claimed, the landmark cannot be used to disprove that sea levels are rising.Īn Instagram user shared a July 17 meme about the rock that read, 'Plymouth Rock, 2022 still at sea level.' Plymouth Rock is a well-known tourist attraction, but its connection to early U.S. Legend has it that, upon arriving in North America, the Pilgrims stepped off the Mayflower onto the large boulder that now sits in a place of prominence on the Plymouth, Massachusetts, waterfront.

Pilgrims land at plymouth rock