'Wobbling' Moon To Cause Devastating Floods In The 2030s: NASA

The world faces an onslaught of coastal flooding starting in the mid-2030s due to a "wobble" in the moon's orbit, NASA has warned, Nick Allen of The Telegraph reported.

The number of floods could quadruple as the gravitational effects of the lunar cycle combine with climate change to produce "a decade of dramatic increases" in water disasters.

The space agency said coastal cities would experience "rapidly increasing high tide floods" and they would occur in "clusters" lasting a month or longer. It said the main cause was a "regular wobble" in the moon’s orbit, which was first recorded in 1728.

NASA said: "What’s new is how one of the wobble’s effects on the moon’s gravitational pull – the main cause of Earth’s tides – will combine with rising sea levels resulting from the planet’s warming."

The wobble in the moon's orbit takes 18.6 years to complete. For half of that time, regular daily tides on Earth are suppressed, meaning high tides are lower than normal, and low tides are higher than normal. During the other half of the cycle tides are amplified, meaning high tides get even higher, and low tides get even lower. As global sea levels rise, the amplification effect will be increased.

The next time this "lunar assist" to high tides comes around will be in the mid-2030s. By that time global sea levels will have been rising for another decade. It will have passed a "tipping point" and the result will be a "leap in flood numbers on almost all US mainland coastlines," Nasa said.

Bill Nelson, head of the space agency, said: “Low-lying areas near sea level are increasingly at risk and suffering due to increased flooding, and it will only get worse.

"The combination of the moon’s gravitational pull, rising sea levels and climate change will continue to exacerbate coastal flooding on our coastlines and across the world." He said it was crucial to plan ahead to protect businesses and people's livelihoods.

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