According to the new research, a sudden surge in sea level could impact 1 billion people.

Nearly one-quarter of the world's population lives below 100 feet above sea level - the size of the biggest surge during the 2004 tsunami that pulverized villages along the Indian Ocean and killed 230,000 people.

"The fact that there are that many people living at that sea level means there are probably a lot of people potentially in harm's way."

A 100-foot rise in sea level would cover 3.7 million square miles of land worldwide.

A rise of just 16 feet would affect 669 million people and 2 million square miles of land would be lost.

via cnn.com