TRENDS AND VARIABILITY OF YEARLY MEAN SEA LEVEL, 1893-1972 



Steacy D. Hicks 



and 

 James E. Crosby 

 National Ocean Survey, NOAA 

 Rockville, Maryland 



ABSTRACT. Sea-level trends, their standard 

 errors, and variability are presented in 

 tabular form for 50 locations along the coasts 

 of the United States. The values are given 

 for the entire series length at each station, 

 the oldest dating from 1893 at New York. For 

 intrastation comparisons, values also are 

 given for the longest length of series common 

 to 46 of the stations, 1940-72. Graphs of 

 yearly mean sea level, upon which the calcu- 

 lations were performed, are plotted for 44 

 stations. 



1. INTRODUCTION 



This Technical Memorandum is directed toward the manage- 

 ment fields of wetlands preservation, pollution abatement and 

 control, conservation, coastal zone management, and global 

 energy; the engineering fields of beach erosion, harbor and 

 waterway construction, shore and sea boundaries, and coastal 

 inundation; and the scientific fields of glaciology, physical 

 and geological oceanography, meteorology and climatology, 

 tectonics, and geodesy. Since the uses of the calculations may 

 vary greatly, no interpretive text is included. This publica- 

 tion will be issued annually; each issue will incorporate the 

 new yearly mean sea level values in each tabulated calculation 

 and graph. 



