The Blob (Pacific Ocean) the surface waters of the mid-latitude Pacific Ocean flipping from a cold phase to a warm phase in a cycle known as the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO). This poorly-understood change happens at irregular intervals of years or decades. During a warm phase, the west Pacific becomes cooler and part of the eastern ocean warms; during the cool phase, these changes reverse. Scientists believe a cold phase started in the late 1990s and the arrival of the Blob may be the start of the next warm phase. The PDO phases may also be related to the likelihood of El Nino events.
Sea level rise that substantial long-term sea-level rise will continue for centuries to come even if the temperature stabilizes. IPCC AR4 estimated that at least a partial deglaciation of the Greenland ice sheet, and possibly the West Antarctic ice sheet, would occur given a global average temperature increase of 1–4 °C (relative to temperatures over the years 1990–2000). This estimate was given about a 50% chance of being correct. Such melting would contribute or more to sea levels over a timescale of centuries to millennia. Melting of the Greenland ice sheet could contribute an additional over many thousands of years. It has been