Disturbing before-and-after images show what major US cities could look like in the year 2100

The world's sea levels are rising at faster and faster rates as waters warm and ice sheets melt.

Researchers led by Steve Nerem, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, looked at satellite data dating back to 1993 to track sea-level rise.

Their findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that sea levels aren't just rising, but that the rate has been accelerating over the past 25 years.

Even small increases can have huge consequences, experts on climate say. If the worst climate-change predictions come true, coastal US cities from New York to New Orleans will be devastated by flooding and greater exposure to storm surges by 2100.

The research group Climate Central has created a plug-in for Google Earth to illustrate how catastrophic an "extreme" sea-level-rise scenario would be if the flooding happened today, based on projections in a 2017 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

You can install the plug-in and see what might become of major US cities.

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In a worst-case scenario, flooding caused by polar melting and ice-sheet collapses could cause a sea-level rise of 10 to 12 feet by 2100, NOAA reported in January 2017.

Here's Washington, DC, today, with the Potomac River running through it.

And here's what Washington, DC, might look like in 2100, as seen on Climate Central's plug-in for Google Earth. Rising sea levels could cause the river to overflow.

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