Far-Field Test of the ICE-4G Model of Global Isostatic Response to Deglaciation Using Empirical and Theoretical Holocene Sea-Level Reconstructions for the Fiji Islands, Southwestern Pacific

AbstractHolocene paleosea-level data for Fiji, represented by 77 dates and emergence magnitudes, are presented, screened, and adjusted. Most data are from coral microatolls, potentially the most precise paleosea-level indicators in this region. Holocene sea-level changes are reconstructed for five areas within Fiji known to have had different late Quaternary tectonic histories. Resulting analysis suggests that postglacial sea level in Fiji reached its present level more than 6900 14C yr B.P. It also suggests either that a single maximum 5650–3200 14C yr B.P. (perhaps +2.19 m but more likely +1.35–1.50 m) occurred or that two maxima occurred 6100–4550 14C yr B.P. (+0.75–1.85 m) and 3590–2800 14C yr B.P. (+0.90–2.46 m). Broad agreement exists between these empirical sea-level reconstructions and those derived theoretically using the ICE-4G model (predicted maximum ∼4000 14C yr B.P.; ∼+2.1 m). This suggests that both methods of reconstructing Holocene sea-level changes are valid, as are the assumptions underpinning the ICE-4G model. The most important of these, that eustatic sea level had effectively stopped rising by late middle-Holocene time (5000–4000 yr B.P.), is confirmed by observations from Fiji.

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The Norse in Greenland and late Holocene sea-level change

Polar Record ◽

10.1017/s0032247407006948 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 44 (1) ◽

pp. 45-50 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Naja Mikkelsen ◽

Antoon Kuijpers ◽

Jette Arneborg

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Ice Age ◽

Documentary Evidence ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Middle Holocene ◽

Level Change ◽

Farming Community ◽

Holocene Sea Level

ABSTRACTNorse immigrants from Europe settled in southern Greenland in around AD 985 and managed to create a farming community during the Medieval Warm Period. The Norse vanished after approximately 500 years of existence in Greenland leaving no documentary evidence concerning why their culture foundered. The flooding of fertile grassland caused by late Holocene sea-level changes may be one of the factors that affected the Norse community. Holocene sea-level changes in Greenland are closely connected with the isostatic response of the Earth's crust to the behaviour of the Greenlandic ice sheet. An early Holocene regressive phase in south and west Greenland was reversed during the middle Holocene, and evidence is found for transgression and drowning of early-middle Holocene coast lines. This drowning started between 8 and 7ka BP in southern Greenland and continued during the Norse era to the present. An average late Holocene sea level rise in the order of 2–3 m/1000 years may be one of the factors that negatively affected the life of the Norse Greenlanders, and combined with other both socio-economic and environmental problems, such as increasing wind and sea ice expansion at the transition to the Little Ice Age, may eventually have led to the end of the Norse culture in Greenland.

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Late Holocene Sea-Level Change on Rota and Guam, Mariana Islands, and Its Constraint on Geophysical Predictions

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1006/qres.1993.1071 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 40 (2) ◽

pp. 189-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Hajime Kayanne ◽

Teruaki Ishii ◽

Eiji Matsumoto ◽

Nobuyuki Yonekura

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Sea Level Change ◽

Mariana Islands ◽

Present Level ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Level Change ◽

Sea Level Variations ◽

Holocene Sea Level

AbstractHolocene emergent reefs and notches are well distributed on Rota and Guam. Relative sea-level changes at these islands are reconstructed based on geomorphological observations and borings on present and emergent reefs, together with 54 radiocarbon dates. Sea level rose gradually to a maximum of 1.8 m between 6000 and 4200 yr B.P. and reached its highest level by 4200 yr B.P. on both islands. After 3200 yr B.P. abrupt uplift caused emergence of the reef. By subtracting the tectonic effect, we obtained the sea-level change in the Marianas: sea level reached its present level by 4200 yr B.P. and has remained almost stable since then. Reconstructed late Holocene sea-level change in the Mariana Islands provides constraints on geophysical models of sea-level variations.

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Morphology of the Raised Shore Platforms along the Coastline between Daghmar and Dhabab, Sultanate of Oman

Journal of Arts and Social Sciences [JASS] ◽

10.24200/jass.vol8iss2pp13-24 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 13 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Salim Mubarak Al Hatrushi

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

Tectonic Activity ◽

Present Level ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

Southeastern Part ◽

Relative Level ◽

Shore Platforms

Raised shore platforms, are rocky surfaces formed by wave action and subaerial weathering during global high sea level stands. The present height of the raised shore platforms is attributed to several factors, mainly to eustatic sea level changes, isostatic changes in the relative level of land and sea, and vertical tectonic activities. The aim of this study is to investigate the detailed morphology of the raised shore platform along the rocky coastline between Daghmar and Dhabab, in the southeastern part of Muscat Governorate. The study also intends to establish a tentative chronology of the raised shore platforms development. The methodology is based on field observation and documentation, along with satellite and aerial photographs analysis. The results have shown that the study area has a sequence of five successive, well developed raised shore platforms and well preserved, except the platform at 10m altitude which is only found in isolated fragments. The formation of the raised shore platforms has been affected by a number of constructive factors including tectonic activity, and destructive factors such as fluvial action and subaerial weathering. No absolute dating has been reported or can be obtained from the study area, due to its erosional nature. However, dating from the shorelines adjacent to the study area, ranging in heights from 3 to 15m above sea level, revealed a narrow range of 26,400 to 29,600 years. This period coincides with the last glaciations when the sea level was at about 75m below the present level, and thus did not match with the altitudes of the platforms. This suggests that the platforms could be belong to the last interglacial high sea level, when the sea level stood at about 6m above the present level. Based on this scenario, the study concludes that the coastline of the study area has not experienced any significant uplift during the Late Quaternary.

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Late-Quaternary Sea Level Changes, Umnak Island, Aleutians—Their Effects on Ancient Aleuts and their Causes

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/0033-5894(74)90016-7 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 264-281 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Robert F. Black

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Food Resources ◽

Aleutian Islands ◽

Level Curve ◽

Present Position ◽

Present Level ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Relative Sea Level

Late-Quaternary sea level changes in the eastern Aleutian Islands are of paramount importance in the reconstruction of the migrations and environment of the ancient Aleuts. A radiocarbon-dated ash stratigraphy provides the chronology into which geomorphic events can be fitted. These provide evidence for the sea level changes. Deployment of beach material and coastal configuration intimate that sea level was about 2–3 m above the present level about 8250 radiocarbon yr BP. Beach deposits suggest that sea level remained high until about 3000 radiocarbon y.a. when it gradually dropped to its present position. It is concluded that the ancient Aleuts that settled Anangula about 8400 y.a. used boats; all major passes in the eastern Aleutians were flooded, and did not have winter ice. Those ancient Aleuts did not have available the major year-around food resources of the present strandflats as they were cut during the high sea level stand 8250–3000 yr BP. The ancient Aleuts must have been marine oriented, for land-based food resources would have been limited.The cause of relative sea level changes on Umnak Island is considered indeterminate with present data. Eustatic, glacial isostatic, water isostatic, tectonic, and volcanic causes are considered the main possible controls in combinations such that a basic eustatic sea level curve and likely a glacial-water isostatic curve must be common to any solution. Representative solutions are given to illustrate some of the problems.

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Late Quaternary inner shelf deposits in response to late Pleistocene–Holocene sea level changes: Nakdong River, SE Korea

Quaternary International ◽

10.1016/j.quaint.2014.02.004 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 344 ◽

pp. 156-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Dong G. Yoo ◽

Seong P. Kim ◽

Tae S. Chang ◽

Gee S. Kong ◽

Nyeon K. Kang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Nakdong River ◽

Inner Shelf ◽

Holocene Sea Level

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Testing the mid-Holocene relative sea-level highstand hypothesis in North Wales, UK

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683619854513 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (9) ◽

pp. 1491-1502

Author(s):

Greg T Rushby ◽

Geoff T Richards ◽

W Roland Gehrels ◽

William P Anderson ◽

Mark D Bateman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Relative Sea Level ◽

Sea Levels ◽

Isostatic Adjustment ◽

North Wales ◽

Level Data ◽

Northwest Europe ◽

Holocene Sea Level

Accurate Holocene relative sea-level curves are vital for modelling future sea-level changes, particularly in regions where relative sea-level changes are dominated by isostatically induced vertical land movements. In North Wales, various glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models predict a mid-Holocene relative sea-level highstand between 4 and 6 ka, which is unsubstantiated by any geological sea-level data but affects the ability of geophysical models to model accurately past and future sea levels. Here, we use a newly developed foraminifera-based sea-level transfer function to produce a 3300-year-long late-Holocene relative sea-level reconstruction from a salt marsh in the Malltraeth estuary on the south Anglesey coast in North Wales. This is the longest continuous late-Holocene relative sea-level reconstruction in Northwest Europe. We combine this record with two new late-Holocene sea-level index points (SLIPs) obtained from a freshwater marsh at Rhoscolyn, Anglesey, and with previously published regional SLIPs, to produce a relative sea-level record for North Wales that spans from ca. 13,000 BP to the present. This record leaves no room for a mid-Holocene relative sea-level highstand in the region. We conclude that GIA models that include a mid-Holocene sea-level highstand for North Wales need revision before they are used in the modelling of past and future relative sea-level changes around the British Isles.

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Late Quaternary sea-level changes of the Persian Gulf

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/j.yqres.2015.04.007 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 84 (1) ◽

pp. 69-81 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Stephen W. Lokier ◽

Mark D. Bateman ◽

Nigel R. Larkin ◽

Philip Rye ◽

John R. Stewart

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Persian Gulf ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Coastal System ◽

Shallow Subtidal ◽

Forced Regression ◽

The Persian Gulf ◽

Holocene Sea Level

Late Quaternary reflooding of the Persian Gulf climaxed with the mid-Holocene highstand previously variously dated between 6 and 3.4 ka. Examination of the stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental context of a mid-Holocene whale beaching allows us to accurately constrain the timing of the transgressive, highstand and regressive phases of the mid- to late Holocene sea-level highstand in the Persian Gulf. Mid-Holocene transgression of the Gulf surpassed today's sea level by 7100–6890 cal yr BP, attaining a highstand of > 1 m above current sea level shortly after 5290–4570 cal yr BP before falling back to current levels by 1440–1170 cal yr BP. The cetacean beached into an intertidal hardground pond during the transgressive phase (5300–4960 cal yr BP) with continued transgression interring the skeleton in shallow-subtidal sediments. Subsequent relative sea-level fall produced a forced regression with consequent progradation of the coastal system. These new ages refine previously reported timings for the mid- to late Holocene sea-level highstand published for other regions. By so doing, they allow us to constrain the timing of this correlatable global eustatic event more accurately.

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