Holocene Relative Sea-Level History of Novaya Zemlya, Russia, and Implications for Late Weichselian Ice-Sheet Loading

2001 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
JaapJan Zeeberg ◽  
David J. Lubinski ◽  
Steven L. Forman
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Lateral Moraine ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
Uplift Rates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Weichselian ◽  
Global Sea Level ◽  
Detailed Record ◽  
East West

AbstractWe present six new radiocarbon-dated emergence curves that provide a detailed record of postglacial emergence of northern Novaya Zemlya and ages which constrain the emergence of Vaygach Island in the southern archipelago. Radiocarbon ages on Hiatella sp. from a lateral moraine in Russkaya Gavan' and abundances of foraminifea in a marine core from Nordenskiold Bay, 300 km south of our study area, indicate that coastal deglaciation occurred prior to ∼10,000 cal yr B.P. However, postglacial emergence commenced ∼7000 cal yr B.P., with stabilization of global sea level. The total emergence is 13–11 m above sea level (asl) with apparent uplift rates of 1–2 mm/yr for the past 2000 yr, indicating modest glacier loads (<1 km), early (>11,000 cal yr B.P.) deglaciation, or both. The isobase pattern, showing no east–west tilt across Novaya Zemlya, and offshore moraines suggest a separate ice-dispersal center over Novaya Zemlya for the later stages of the Late Weichselian glacial cycle and possibly earlier.

scholarly journals Towards assessing the influence of sediment loading on Last Interglacial sea level

2019 ◽  
Vol 220 (1) ◽  
pp. 384-392
Author(s):  
T Pico
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Tectonic Uplift ◽  
Sediment Loading ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Isostatic Adjustment ◽  
Uplift Rates ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Last Glacial

SUMMARY Locally, the elevation of last interglacial (LIG; ∼122 ka) sea level markers is modulated by processes of vertical displacement, such as tectonic uplift or glacial isostatic adjustment, and these processes must be accounted for in deriving estimates of global ice volumes from geological sea level records. The impact of sediment loading on LIG sea level markers is generally not accounted for in these corrections, as it is assumed that the impact is negligible except in extremely high depositional settings, such as the world's largest river deltas. Here we perform a generalized test to assess the extent to which sediment loading may impact global variability in the present-day elevation of LIG sea level markers. We numerically simulate river sediment deposition using a diffusive model that incorporates a migrating shoreline to construct a global history of sedimentation over the last glacial cycle. We then calculate sea level changes due to this sediment loading using a gravitationally self-consistent model of glacial isostatic adjustment, and compare these predictions to a global compilation of LIG sea level data. We perform a statistical analysis, which accounts for spatial autocorrelation, across a global compilation of 1287 LIG sea level markers. Though limited by uncertainties in the LIG sea level database and the precise history of river deposition, this analysis suggests there is not a statistically significant global signal of sediment loading in LIG sea level markers. Nevertheless, at sites where LIG sea level markers have been measured, local sea level predicted using our simulated sediment loading history is perturbed up to 16 m. More generally, these predictions establish the relative sensitivity of different regions to sediment loading. Finally, we consider the implications of our results for estimates of tectonic uplift rates derived from LIG marine terraces; we predict that sediment loading causes 5–10 m of subsidence over the last glacial cycle at specific locations along active margin regions such as California and Barbados, where deriving long-term tectonic uplift rates from LIG shorelines is a common practice.

High Water, Low Water

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Zalasiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
High Water ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Flood Plains ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global Sea Level ◽  
The Waves ◽  
Rock Strata

In almost everybody’s natural lifetime, the sea is one of the great unchanging certainties of life. There is land; there is sea; and in between is that magical place, the seaside, which is sometimes knocked about a bit by the waves, but always manages to recover for that next idyllic summer. There are, one remembers, those faintly disquieting legends, about a remarkably well-organized and ecologically aware person called Noah, and about a Deluge. But these, of course, should not be taken seriously. They were a jumpy and superstitious lot, our ancestors, always prone to making up scary stories. It was a good way to keep the children in order. With a longer perspective, things seem a little different. Take any one location on the globe, for instance. Track it over millions of years. At that one location, there may be a change from deep ocean, to shallow sea, to a shoreline, and thence to terrestrial swamps and flood plains. And then, perhaps, to the absence of evidence, a horizon of absolutely no thickness at all within a succession of rock strata, in which a million years or a hundred million years—or more—may be missing, entirely unrecorded. It is that phenomenon called an unconformity, all that is left of the history of a terrestrial landscape pushed up into the erosional realm. On that eroding landscape, there may have been episodes of battle, murder, and sudden death among armoured saurians, of fire, flood, and storm, and of the humdrum day-to-day life of the vast vegetarian dinosaurs, chewing through their daily hundredweights of plants. Of this, no trace can persist. Only when that landscape is plunged again towards sea level, and begins to be silted up, can a tangible geological record resume. The Earth’s crust, as we have seen, is malleable, can be pushed downwards or thrust upwards by the forces that drive the continents across the face of the globe. Many of the sea level changes that can be read in the strata of the archives are of this sort, and mark purely local ups and downs of individual sections of crust, with no evidence that global sea level was anything other than constant.

Mid-Cretaceous onlap history of the Market Weighton structural high, northeast England

1999 ◽  
Vol 136 (6) ◽  
pp. 681-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. UNDERWOOD ◽  
S. F. MITCHELL
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Sedimentary Facies ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
Western Margin ◽  
Level Curves ◽  
History Of ◽  
Tectonic Settings ◽  
Global Sea Level ◽  
Structural High

The mid-Cretaceous sediments of northeast England were deposited at the western margin of the southern North Sea Basin, with sedimentation occurring in a range of tectonic settings. Detailed analysis of the areal distribution and sedimentary facies of Aptian to earliest Cenomanian sediments has allowed the pattern of onlap onto the Market Weighton structural high and changes in relative sea level to be documented. Successive onlap episodes during the Early Aptian, Late Aptian and Early Albian culminated in the final flooding of the structure during the Late Albian (varicosum Subzone). Sea-level curves generated from coastal onlap patterns are difficult to relate to published ‘global’ sea-level curves due to the high frequency of the fluctuations in relative sea level observed. Despite this, detailed correlation and analysis of sedimentological events suggest that even the most expanded, basinal succession is relatively incomplete. This study has also shown that the change from dominantly syn-tectonic to dominantly post-tectonic sedimentation style occurred in the late Early Albian.

Variations of fluvial patterns and infilling history of a paleoincised valley system during Late Pleistocene to Holocene, Offshore Pahang River, Peninsular Malaysia

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. T39-T50
Author(s):  
Md Mostafizur Rahman ◽  
Edlic Sathiamurthy ◽  
Guangfa Zhong ◽  
Jianghua Geng ◽  
Zhifei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Peninsular Malaysia ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Shallow Marine ◽  
3D Data ◽  
Data Volume ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Pleistocene To Holocene ◽  
Cover Thickness

High-resolution 2D acoustic profiles, combined with time slices from a 3D data volume, were used to investigate the paleoincised valleys offshore of the present-day Pahang River, South China Sea. Paleovalleys were formed during the regressive phase of the last glacial cycle. They were submerged and possibly filled during valley formation and postglacial marine transgression. Interpretation of acoustic profiles illustrates that the valleys were incised and infilled during the regression and low stand followed by subsequent deglacial sea-level rise. They were overlain by a transgressive ravinement surface suggesting transitional deposits between fluvial-dominated filling and shallow-marine deposition. This ravinement surface is overlain by Holocene shallow marine deposits. A low-sinuosity low-stand valley system changed to a high-sinuosity meander belt and eventually evolved into a deltaic distributary channel system before the complete submergence of the area. The average Late Pleistocene surface lies between 53 and 64 m below present-day mean sea level in the study area with approximately 16–50 m of valley incision. The Holocene shallow marine cover thickness varies from 5 to 10 m.

scholarly journals Subglacial thermal balance permits ongoing grounding-line retreat along the Siple Coast of West Antarctica

2003 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 251-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byron R. Parizek ◽  
Richard B. Alley ◽  
Christina L. Hulbe
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Regulation Mechanism ◽  
Ice Streams ◽  
West Antarctic Ice Sheet ◽  
West Antarctic ◽  
Ice Stream ◽  
Grounding Line ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global Sea Level

AbstractChanges in the discharge of West Antarctic ice streams are of potential concern with respect to global sea level. The six relatively thin, fast-flowing Ross ice streams are of interest as low-slope end-members among Antarctic ice streams. Extensive research has demonstrated that these “rivers of ice” have a history of relatively high-frequency , asynchronous discharge variations with evolving lateral boundaries. Amidst this variability, a ∼1300 km grounding-line retreat has occurred since the Last Glacial Maximum. Numerical studies of Ice Stream D (Parizek and others, 2002) indicate that a proposed thermal-regulation mechanism (Clarke and Marshall, 1998; Hulbe and MacAyeal, 1999; Tulaczyk and others, 2000a, b), which could buffer the West Antarctic ice sheet against complete collapse, may be over-ridden by latent-heat transport within melt-water from beneath inland ice. Extending these studies to Ice Stream A, Whillans Ice Stream and Ice Stream C suggests that further grounding-line retreat contributing to sea-level rise is possible thermodynamically However, the efficiency of basal water distribution may be a constraint on the system. Because local thermal deficits promote basal freeze-on (especially on topographic highs), observed short-term variability is likely to persist.

PISM paleo simulations of the Antarctic Ice Sheet over the last two glacial cycles

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torsten Albrecht ◽  
Ricarda Winkelmann ◽  
Anders Levermann
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Glacial Cycles ◽  
Antarctic Ice Sheet ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global Sea Level ◽  
Glacial Time ◽  
The Antarctic

&lt;p&gt;Simulations of the glacial-interglacial history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet provide insights into dynamic threshold behavior and estimates of the ice sheet's contributions to global sea-level changes, for the past, present and future. However, boundary conditions are weakly constrained, in particular at the interface of the ice-sheet and the bedrock. We use the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM) to investigate the dynamic effects of different choices of input data and of various parameterizations on the sea-level relevant ice volume. We evaluate the model's transient sensitivity to corresponding parameter choices and to different boundary conditions over the last two glacial cycles and provide estimates of involved uncertainties. We also present isolated and combined effects of climate and sea-level forcing on glacial time scales.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;

Holocene isostasy and late Cenozoic development of landforms including Beaver and Radok Lake basins in the Amery Oasis, Prince Charles Mountains, Antarctica

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.A. Adamson ◽  
M.C.G. Mabin ◽  
J.G. Luly
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Ice Streams ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
Field Evidence ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Uplift Rates ◽  
Beaver Lake ◽  
Lambert Glacier

Geomorphological observations show no detectable uplift (i.e. falling relative sea level) of Amery Oasis since the establishment of relatively stable sea level during the mid-Holocene. The observations around the basin of Beaver Lake include an absence of raised shoreline features, the presence down to the present tidal limit of in situ ventifacts and residual landforms, the cliffed southern shoreline and adjacent shallow subhorizontal floor of Beaver Lake, and the composition of recent moraines on the basin's north eastern edge. This lack of Holocene uplift is consistent with low uplift rates observed from coastal oases of East Antarctica and suggests minor, rather than major, changes to the Antarctic ice sheet during the most recent Quaternary glacial cycle. The formation of Beaver basin is attributed to late Cenozoic glacial excavation by south flowing ice of the palaeo-Nemesis Glacier, initially eroding when relative sea level was higher than it is today. The basin containing Radok Lake was excavated by the palaeo-Battye Glacier probably when most effective during the numerous long cold periods of the late Cenozoic. The field evidence from landforms and the presence of marine fossil deposits suggests Amery Oasis was not overrun by erosive ice since at least the Pliocene, major ice streams such as Lambert Glacier flowing then, as now, around the oasis.

Late Weichselian and Holocene Relative Sea-level History of Bröggerhalvöya, Spitsbergen

1987 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven L. Forman ◽  
Daniel H. Mann ◽  
Gifford H. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
Norwegian Sea ◽  
Depositional Processes ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Late Weichselian ◽  
Raised Beaches

AbstractRadiocarbon-dated whalebones from raised beaches record a relative sea-level history for Bröggerhalvöya, western Spitsbergen that suggest a two-step deglaciation on Svalbard at the end of the late Weichselian glaciation. The late Weichselian marine limit was reached at about 13,000 yr B.P. and was followed by relatively slow emergence until about 10,000 yr B.P. either in response to ice unloading in the Barents Sea, initial retreat of local fjord glaciers, or some combination of the two. Rare whale skeletons dating between 13,000 and 10,000 yr B.P. indicate that the Norwegian Sea was at least seasonally ice free during that interval. Deglaciation of Spitsbergen is recorded by the rapid emergence of Bröggerhalvöya after 10,000 yr B.P. This was followed by a transgression during the mid-Holocene, here named the Talavera Transgression, and another in modern times. Raised beach morphologies suggest striking differences in nearshore depositional processes before and after 10,000 yr B.P. that are probably related to changes in the rate of uplift and in sea-ice conditions.

scholarly journals High interstadial sea levels over the past 420ka from Huon terraces (Papua New Guinea)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gino de Gelder ◽  
Laurent Husson ◽  
Anne-Morwenn Pastier ◽  
David Fernández-Blanco ◽  
Tamara Pico ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Deformation Pattern ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Global Mean Sea Level ◽  
Global Sea Level ◽  
Geological Constraints

The history of sea level across the Quaternary is essential for assessing past and future climate and geodynamics. Global sea-level reconstructions are typically derived from oxygen isotope curves, but require calibration with geological constraints that are particularly scarce prior to the last glacial cycle (>130 ka). The exceptionally well-preserved coral reef terrace sequence in the Huon Peninsula (Papua New Guinea) may provide such constraints up to ~420 ka, but has never been analysed in its full extent, or with high-resolution topographic data. Here we apply novel geometric approaches to show that the terrace sequence deformation pattern can be approximated by a northward tectonic tilt, and estimate relative sea-level (RSL) for 31 Late Pleistocene periods, including several periods for which no other RSL data exists elsewhere. Supported by reef modelling, these estimates suggest that global mean sea-level curves derived from oxygen isotopes systematically underestimate interstadial sea-level elevations, by up to ~20m. We propose that this discrepancy is either an effect of incorrect oxygen isotope curve calibrations, or that some short-lived sea-level variations are simply not recorded in oxygen isotope ratios.

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