Eustatic Sea Level Changes Interpreted from Seismic Stratigraphy: A Critique of the Methodology with Particular Reference to the North Sea Jurassic Record

Abstract. Information on sea level and its temporal and spatial variability is of great importance for various scientific, societal, and economic issues. This article reports about a new sea level dataset for the North Sea (named North SEAL) of monthly sea level anomalies (SLAs), absolute sea level trends, and amplitudes of the mean annual sea level cycle over the period 1995–2019. Uncertainties and quality flags are provided together with the data. The dataset has been created from multi-mission cross-calibrated altimetry data preprocessed with coastal dedicated approaches and gridded with an innovative least-squares procedure including an advanced outlier detection to a 6–8 km wide triangular mesh. The comparison of SLAs and tide gauge time series shows good consistency, with average correlations of 0.85 and maximum correlations of 0.93. The improvement with respect to existing global gridded altimetry solutions amounts to 8 %–10 %, and it is most pronounced in complicated coastal environments such as river mouths or regions sheltered by islands. The differences in trends at tide gauge locations depend on the vertical land motion model used to correct relative sea level trends. The best consistency with a median difference of 0.04±1.15 mm yr−1 is reached by applying a recent glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) model. With the presented sea level dataset, for the first time, a regionally optimized product for the entire North Sea is made available. It will enable further investigations of ocean processes, sea level projections, and studies on coastal adaptation measures. The North SEAL data are available at https://doi.org/10.17882/79673 (Müller et al., 2021).

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NorthSEAL: A new Dataset of Sea Level Changes in the North Sea from Satellite Altimetry

10.5194/essd-2021-103 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Denise Dettmering ◽

Felix L. Müller ◽

Julius Oelsmann ◽

Marcello Passaro ◽

Christian Schwatke ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

North Sea ◽

Tide Gauge ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Adaptation Measures ◽

Isostatic Adjustment ◽

The North ◽

Sea Level Anomalies ◽

Vertical Land Motion ◽

The North Sea

Abstract. Information on sea level and its temporal and spatial variability is of great importance for various scientific, societal and economic issues. This article reports about a new sea level dataset for the North Sea (named NorthSEAL) of monthly sea level anomalies (SLA), absolute sea level trends and sea level mean annual amplitudes over the period 1995–2019. Uncertainties and quality flags are provided together with the data. The dataset has been created from multi-mission cross-calibrated altimetry data, preprocessed 5 with coastal dedicated approaches and gridded with innovative methods to a 6–8 km wide triangular mesh. The comparison of SLA and tide gauge time series shows a good consistency with average correlations of 0.85 and maximum correlations of 0.93. The improvement with respect to existing global gridded altimetry solutions amounts to 8–10 %, and it is most pronounced in complicated coastal environments such as river mouths or regions sheltered by islands. The differences in trends at tide gauge locations depend on the vertical land motion model used to correct relative sea level trends. The best 10 consistency with a median difference of 0.04 ± 1.15 mm/year is reached by applying a recent glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) model. With the presented sea level dataset, for the first time, a regionally optimized product for the entire North Sea is made available. It will enable further investigations of ocean processes, sea level projections and studies on coastal adaptation measures. The NorthSEAL data is available at https://doi.org/10.17882/79673 (Müller et al., 2021).

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Future storm surge impacts on insurable losses for the North Sea region

Natural Hazards and Earth System Science ◽

10.5194/nhess-11-1205-2011 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 1205-1216 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

L. Gaslikova ◽

A. Schwerzmann ◽

C. C. Raible ◽

T. F. Stocker

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Storm Surge ◽

North Sea ◽

Sea Level Change ◽

Coastal Protection ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Mean Sea Level ◽

Level Change ◽

The North ◽

The North Sea

Abstract. The influence of climate change on storm surges including increased mean sea level change and the associated insurable losses are assessed for the North Sea basin. In doing so, the newly developed approach couples a dynamical storm surge model with a loss model. The key element of the approach is the generation of a probabilistic storm surge event set. Together with parametrizations of the inland propagation and the coastal protection failure probability this enables the estimation of annual expected losses. The sensitivity to the parametrizations is rather weak except when the assumption of high level of increased mean sea level change is made. Applying this approach to future scenarios shows a substantial increase of insurable losses with respect to the present day. Superimposing different mean sea level changes shows a nonlinear behavior at the country level, as the future storm surge changes are higher for Germany and Denmark. Thus, the study exhibits the necessity to assess the socio-economic impacts of coastal floods by combining the expected sea level rise with storm surge projections.

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Origin of a deep buried valley system in Pleistocene deposits of the eastern central North Sea

Danmarks Geologiske Undersøgelse Serie C ◽

10.34194/seriec.v12.7106 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

pp. 7-19

Author(s):

Inger Salomonsen

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

North Sea ◽

River System ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Upper Pleistocene ◽

The North ◽

Late Tertiary ◽

Deltaic Sedimentation ◽

The North Sea ◽

Glacial Periods

In the North Sea, the sedimentary development of the late Tertiary and early Quaternary was dominated by deltaic sedimentation in a fast subsiding basin. During the Pleistocene, pronounced climatic changes affected the sedimentation of the area and progradation of the delta systems ceased. The Middle and Upper Pleistocene sedimentary successions consist of alternations of marine and fluvial deposits, partly reworked during glacial periods. Seismic records from the Danish sector of the North Sea reveal numerous deep incisions cut down from various levels of the Middle and Upper Pleistocene successions. These incisions are concluded to form a pattern of buried valleys. Detailed seismic stratigraphic analysis shows the occurrence of various internal unconformities within these buried valleys. It is concluded that the valleys originate from a river system developed in periods of repeated sea-level changes. Pluvial erosion during glacial sea-level lowstand and glacial meltwater action is proposed to have been responsible for the origin of the valley system. Thus, in Middle and Upper Pleistocene glacial periods drainage and associated sediment transport occurred from Northwest and Central European land areas via a presently buried river system in the southeastern North Sea towards a depositional basin north and northwest of the Danish North Sea sector.

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