Anyhow, fit a regression line, and the trend is upward for most parts of the world. Maybe someday we'll return to an ice age, I mean, we were there in some parts of the world 10000 years ago. Right now the data shows we're in a warming cycle. It may be human-caused, it may be forces beyond our understanding (after all, the planet has gone through several heating-cooling cycles), but either way it's happening.
It leads to the Eastern Pacific (America) being lower than the West (Asia) normally (surface wind goes west), normally about ~50cm above mean before Asia and about 20cm below mean before America.
This changes during El Nino events, when the surface wind changes direction and the water is pushed the other way (~20cm below mean before Asia and 20cm above mean before America). Those values include thermal expansion and stuff.
The Marshall islands are more to the Asia side of the Pacific. There is a ~20cm dip in 1998. [1] It fits.
[1] http://sealevel.colorado.edu/content/interactive-sea-level-t...
There's a drop from 2014-2016, but it's too early to say if it's temporary like the drop between 1997-1998 (El Niño?)
We can say a priori that the sea level is not a random walk. A random walk is boundless - the sea level is not going to suddenly rise 100 meters.
https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=10664069&goto=item%3Fi...