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ABSTRACT. Sea level, water temperature, and wind stress data were obtained from the Western Gulf of Mexico to elucidate the relationship between sea level changes and meteorological variables in a tropical coral reef system. Sea level and water temperature data were measured with a series of acoustic Doppler current profilers anchored at a depth of approximately 13 m in the Veracruz Reef System. The barometric and wind stress data were obtained from an automatic coastal weather station. Principal Component Analysis was applied to the series to determine the relative influence of the different meteorological variables on sea level. The seasonal variability of sea level is evident in the year-long data (September 2008 to April 2010) with a thermal expansion during the summer. Barometric pressure was found to be the second strongest forcing mechanism of sea level variability and not the first one. Opposite to what would be expected in protected coastal areas where the wind forcing mechanism on sea level may not be as important. The local winds were the main forcing mechanism of the sea level variability from March to September, while the meridional winds were more important than local winds from October to February.

Tsunamis in Mexico are a real threat, still unknown to many, mainly by people living in or visiting the coast. The Tsunami Warning Center in Mexico recently created (September 19, 2011) monitors earthquakes and sea level change caused by these same. Sea level on the west coast of the Mexican Pacific was analyzed after the occurrence of local, regional and distant earthquakes, in order to determine the existence of an anomaly due to the quake itself. Variations in sea level due to local registered earthquakes Mw 6.0 to 7.4 range was from 0.10 to 0.30 m; for regional earthquakes of Mw 7.3 and 8.2 were 0.12 and 0.22 m respectively and to the distant earthquake of Mw 8.0 recorded in Solomon Islands, the change in sea level of the maximum recorded was 0.20 m in Manzanillo, Colima. It is important to know that earthquakes whether local, regional or distant whose magnitudes are in the range specified here, did not present a risk to the Mexican coast, but do not rely, having to monitor variations in sea level that earthquakes can produce and be aware that you may perhaps occur as a tsunami in Indonesia in 2004 or Japan in 2011.