CONTINENTAL SHELF EVOLUTION IN RESPONSE TO A RISE IN SEA LEVEL

1987 ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
CRAIG H. EVERTS
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Sea Level

scholarly journals A model of the methane cycle, permafrost, and hydrology of the Siberian continental margin

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2953-2974 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Archer
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Methane Hydrate ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Methane Flux ◽  
Pore Fluid ◽  
Permafrost Zone ◽  
Sediment Surface ◽  
Sediment Column ◽  
Atmospheric Flux

Abstract. A two-dimensional model of a sediment column, with Darcy fluid flow, biological and thermal methane production, and permafrost and methane hydrate formation, is subjected to glacial–interglacial cycles in sea level, alternately exposing the continental shelf to the cold atmosphere during glacial times and immersing it in the ocean in interglacial times. The glacial cycles are followed by a "long-tail" 100 kyr warming due to fossil fuel combustion. The salinity of the sediment column in the interior of the shelf can be decreased by hydrological forcing to depths well below sea level when the sediment is exposed to the atmosphere. There is no analogous advective seawater-injecting mechanism upon resubmergence, only slower diffusive mechanisms. This hydrological ratchet is consistent with the existence of freshwater beneath the sea floor on continental shelves around the world, left over from the last glacial period. The salt content of the sediment column affects the relative proportions of the solid and fluid H2O-containing phases, but in the permafrost zone the salinity in the pore fluid brine is a function of temperature only, controlled by equilibrium with ice. Ice can tolerate a higher salinity in the pore fluid than methane hydrate can at low pressure and temperature, excluding methane hydrate from thermodynamic stability in the permafrost zone. The implication is that any methane hydrate existing today will be insulated from anthropogenic climate change by hundreds of meters of sediment, resulting in a response time of thousands of years. The strongest impact of the glacial–interglacial cycles on the atmospheric methane flux is due to bubbles dissolving in the ocean when sea level is high. When sea level is low and the sediment surface is exposed to the atmosphere, the atmospheric flux is sensitive to whether permafrost inhibits bubble migration in the model. If it does, the atmospheric flux is highest during the glaciating, sea level regression (soil-freezing) part of the cycle rather than during deglacial transgression (warming and thawing). The atmospheric flux response to a warming climate is small, relative to the rest of the methane sources to the atmosphere in the global budget, because of the ongoing flooding of the continental shelf. The increased methane flux due to ocean warming could be completely counteracted by a sea level rise of tens of meters on millennial timescales due to the loss of ice sheets, decreasing the efficiency of bubble transit through the water column. The model results give no indication of a mechanism by which methane emissions from the Siberian continental shelf could have a significant impact on the near-term evolution of Earth's climate, but on millennial timescales the release of carbon from hydrate and permafrost could contribute significantly to the fossil fuel carbon burden in the atmosphere–ocean–terrestrial carbon cycle.

scholarly journals Flowing into the unknown: inferred paleodrainages for studying the ichthyofauna of Brazilian coastal rivers

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andréa T. Thomaz ◽  
L. Lacey Knowles
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Brazilian Coast ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Bathymetric Data ◽  
Biological Studies ◽  
Coastal Rivers ◽  
Coastal Basins ◽  
Geologic Data

ABSTRACT The eastern coastal basins of Brazil are a series of small and isolated rivers that drain directly into the Atlantic Ocean. During the Pleistocene, sea-level retreat caused by glaciations exposed the continental shelf, resulting in enlarged paleodrainages that connected rivers that are isolated today. Using Geographic Information System (GIS), we infer the distribution of these paleodrainages, and their properties for the east Brazilian coast. Specifically, using elevation/bathymetric data for the largest sea-level retreats during the Pleistocene, the paleodrainages, their area and the number of contemporary basins connected by each palaeodrainage, was inferred. For the 145 inferred paleodrainages, total paleodrainage area is strongly correlated with the contemporary area encompassed by each paleodrainage, as well as with the number of contemporary basins encompassed by a paleodrainage. Differences in the continental shelf exposure along the coast affected the degree of past connectivity among contemporary rivers. With our results freely available, we discuss how paleodrainages have tremendous utility in biological studies, especially in regions with limited geologic data. With respect to the diverse ichthyofauna of the Brazilian coast, and its high endemism, we highlight how the inferred paleodrainages provide a backdrop to test hypotheses about the effect of past riverine connectivity on diversity patterns.

scholarly journals Arrecifes de arenisca en el Golfo de Salamanca, plataforma continental del Caribe colombiano

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Zea ◽  
Gladys Bernal ◽  
Gloria López ◽  
Marion Weber ◽  
Rocío Del Pilar García-Urueña
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Petrographic Analysis ◽  
Saline Environments ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Lagoon System

In tropical seas there are submerged hard bottoms that harbor corals but that are not coralline in origin. This is the case for the “Banco de las Ánimas” sector in the continental shelf of the Gulf of Salamanca, Colombian Caribbean. In its upper portion (14–16 m in depth), there are low mounds of sandstone blocks and slabs, conforming reefs, colonized by coralline biota and sparse corals. To confirm their lithology an initial petrographic analysis was carried out, which showed the rocks are made up of fine-grained sands, mature in texture, cemented by dolomite. It is proposed that these reefs were formed in a beach–dune–lagoon system during an ancient sea level, similar to the recent coastal bar of Salamanca. In these high-evaporation, supratidal saline environments, they could have been formed as beach rocks or as eolianites, by aragonite cementation, modified later into dolomite. Whether the foundation of the deeper coral formations of the bankis also sandstone or in fact coralline, remains to be determined.

Wisconsinan glacial and sea-level history of Maritime Canada and the adjacent continental shelf: A correlation of land and sea events

1998 ◽  
Vol 110 (7) ◽  
pp. 821-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. R. Stea ◽  
D. J. W. Piper ◽  
G. B. J. Fader ◽  
R. Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
History Of ◽  
Maritime Canada ◽  
And Sea Level

Continental shelf waves and their influence on the circulation around the Great Barrier Reef

1983 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Wolanski ◽  
AF Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Atmospheric Pressure ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Internal Tides ◽  
Wind Component ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Longshore Current ◽  
Shelf Waves

Winds and atmospheric pressure, sea level and water currents were measured at several locations over the continental shelf, both east and west of the Great Barrier Reef, between 14.5�s. and 20�S., from June to November 1980. The dominant wind direction changed from westward over the Coral Sea to north- westward (roughly parallel to the shore) over the shelf. A strong non-tidal low-frequency signal in all sea- level and longshore current data was found, highly coherent from site to site and strongly correlated with the longshore wind component over the shelf, though not with the atmospheric pressure. A model of wind- driven barotropic shelf waves is used to explain a number of observations, such as the invariance of temporal fluctuations of longshore current with distance from shore, and the northward longshore propagation of oceanic disturbances at a speed equal to twice that of the first-mode barotropic free shelf wave, a speed one order of magnitude smaller than that of the wind system. The low-frequency current fluctuations resulted in large water displacements, up and down the coast. Low-frequency cross-shelf currents were much weaker and less coherent. Two upwelling mechanisms are internal tides and internal Kelvin waves coupled to the barotropic shelf waves.

scholarly journals Recent Constraints on MIS 3 Sea Level Support Role of Continental Shelf Exposure as a Control on Indo‐Pacific Hydroclimate

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Pico ◽  
D. McGee ◽  
J. Russell ◽  
J. X. Mitrovica
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Mis 3
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