A recent article in the New Scientist suggests that Atlantic oceanfront and low-lying have more to fear, short-term, than the same types of places in and on the Pacific Ocean, from the melting of Greenland. According to the simulation, performed at Hamburg University,

most of the melted water will stay in the Atlantic for at least 50 years, where sea levels will rise much faster as a result. Only small amounts will make it into the Pacific Ocean in that time.

This simulation suggests that the flood risk in places like New York, Miami, and Atlantic City (in the US) and Lagos, Abidjan, and Casablanca (on the west coast of Africa) is quite a bit higher than we might have thought.

The meltwater is predicted to move in a “slow wave” around the globe, and isn’t supposed to cause major havoc in the Pacific or Indian Oceans until, oh, the end of the century.