Most probable origin and statistical attribution of the major causes of global mean sea level anomaly and rising tides since the 20th century

The origin of the anomalous global sea level rise (SLR) since the last century is highly controversial and not fully understood. The observed increase of high tides and decrease of low tides in many coastal areas around the world imply that some crucial physical mechanisms that govern the rising sea levels may have been overlooked. The relative contribution of nutation, axial precession, lunar acceleration, Earth’s spin and sea surface temperature on sea level anomaly was estimated using multiple regression. A very high relative contribution of the polar migration (49.4%) on the mean sea level rise, followed by axial precession (46.7%) and a secondary contribution of lunar acceleration (3.9%) was found. Sea surface temperature and earth spin rate showed negative correlations with sea level rise. The annual changes of the polar migration, axial precession and lunar acceleration appear to be the dominant physical mechanisms behind the SLR problem. These factors are largely driven by strong earthquakes. The rising oceanic tides in the last century up to the present is largely due to North Pole migration. Apparently, the observed nutation and axial precession are caused by the increased eccentricity of the lunar orbit through changes in the lunar distance and lunar acceleration.