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If sea levels were that high now, vast regions would be flooded: most of northern Europe, large sections of South America, the East Coast of North America, and parts of Australia.

In Washington, D.C., the tip of the Washington Monument would poke just above the water. The base of the 555-foot-tall (169-meter-tall) obelisk is currently 30 feet (9 meters) above sea level.

(Related news: "Global Warming Is Rapidly Raising Sea Levels, Studies Warn" [March 23, 2006].)

The finding stems from more than a decade of effort to virtually reconstruct ancient ocean basins to understand how their size and depth have changed since the Cretaceous, which lasted from 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago.

The result is a dramatic image of historic sea level change that goes beyond what is expected in the coming decades due to rapid global warming-induced ice cap melting.