London, Jan 19: A new study by a team of Spanish scientists has warned that the level of the Mediterranean Sea is rising rapidly and could increase by up to half a metre in the next 50 years.

According to BBC, the study, entitled “Climate Change in the Spanish Mediterranean”, was conducted by the Spanish Oceanographic Institute.

The study stated that the levels of the Mediterranean Sea have been rising since the 1970s, with the rate of increase growing in recent years.

In fact, the sea had risen between 2.5mm and 10mm (0.1 and 0.4in) per year since the 1990s, the study said.

According to the study, if this trend continued, it would have very serious consequences in low-lying coastal areas, even in the case of a small rise, and catastrophic consequences if a half-metre increase occurred.

The study noted that the findings were consistent with other investigations into the effects of climate change.

On a global level, scientists noted that sea temperatures had also risen significantly by 0.12 to 0.5C since the 1970s.

A recent study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had said that the world's sea levels could rise twice as much this century as UN climate scientists had previously predicted.

The Nobel Prize-winning IPCC predicted a maximum sea level rise of 81cm (32in) this century. (ANI)