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BookmarkMean sea level (MSL) is the average (mean) height of the sea, with reference to a suitable reference surface.
See also:
Defining the reference level, however, involves complex measurement, and accurately determining MSL can prove difficult.
Sea level has changed over geologic time.
During the most recent ice age (at its maximum about 20,000 years ago) the world's sea level was about 130 m lower than today, due to the large amount of sea water that had evaporated and been deposited as snow and ice in northern hemisphere glaciers..
For more information about the topic Sea level, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Altitude — Altitude is the elevation of an object from a known level or datum. Common datums are mean sea level and the surface of the WGS-84 geoid, used by ... > read more
Altimeter — An altimeter is an active instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, ... > read more
Note: This page refers to an article that is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article Sea level at Wikipedia.org. See the Wikipedia copyright page for more details.
