Frontline to sea level changes

[Ancient Storm]

From this SciDev article:

Living low: the climate change view from Tuvalu
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*Tuvalu faces an uncertain future thanks to rising sea levels
7 April 2006
Source: Nature

Tuvalu — a remote island nation in the Pacific — may seem an unlikely scientific battleground. But this tiny developing nation is on the front line of climate change. If sea levels rise as much as many climate change researchers predict, Tuvalu could one day disappear.

The country's topography makes it vulnerable: the highest land is just five metres above sea level. This year, Tuvalu has had some of its highest ever tides — nearly 1.5 metres above the average.

So I guess, island nations such as Tuvalu and similar are the indicators of sea level rise. But that tide sounds huge.

Another thing that comes to mind is if this in fact is cyclic as some studies (ice core etc) have indicated - is it possible to tell on these islands cycles of submergence and emergence