scholarly journals Relative sea-level development and isostasy along the NE German Baltic Sea coast during the past 9 ka.

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard Lampe ◽  
Elisabeth Endtmann ◽  
Wolfgang Janke ◽  
Hinrich Meyer

Abstract. Jüngere Pegeldaten aus dem nordostdeutschen Ostsee-Küstenraum legen nahe, dass die eustatische Komponente der gegenwärtigen Meeresspiegeländerung überlagert wird durch eine räumlich differenzierte nicht-eustatische, insbesondere glazial- isostatisch, Komponente. Um zu untersuchen, in welchem Maße die frühere Meeresspiegelentwicklung durch diese beiden Komponenten beeinflusst wurde, wurde versucht, diese so weit zurück zu verfolgen, wie dies die Mächtigkeit der marinen Küstensedimentfolgen erlaubte. Drei neue relative Meeresspiegelkurven wurden abgeleitet, wovon zwei hier zum ersten Mal präsentiert werden. Die Kurven basieren auf zahlreichen AMS-Radiokohlenstoff-Datierungen von Meeresspiegel-Indexpunkten wie Basistorfen, archäologischen Unterwasserfunden und Torfprofilen aus Küstenüberflutungsmooren. Obwohl der Indikationswert der Proben aus den Küstenmooren wegen deren möglicher Kompaktion fraglich ist, konnten zuverlässige Angaben durch den Abgleich von Daten aus unterschiedlichen Ablagerungsräumen gewonnen werden. Die drei abgeleiteten Meeresspiegelkurven überdecken den Zeitraum von 6000 bis 7000 v. Chr. bis zur Gegenwart und divergieren gleichmäßig mit zunehmendem Alter. Ein Uferlinienverschiebungsdiagramm zeigt, dass tektonische Ereignisse dieses räumliche Bewegungsmuster nicht signifikant beeinflusst haben. Für die Bestimmung der isostatischen Komponente wurden die Meeresspiegelkurven verglichen mit einer von Denys/Baeteman (1995) publizierten Kurve für die belgische Küste, die als tektonisch und isostatisch stabiler gilt. Der Verlauf dieser Kurve wird daher hauptsächlich von der eustatischen Komponente bestimmt. Der Vergleich legt nahe, dass der SW-Abschnitt der deutschen Ostseeküste gegenwärtig eine leichte Submergenz aufweist, möglicherweise infolge eines sich rückbildenden, glazial bedingten Randwulstes. Im zentralen Abschnitt ist die isostatische Bewegung vor wenigen Tausend Jahren ausgeklungen, im nördlichen Abschnitt hält sie dagegen immer noch an. Hier beträgt die maximale Hebung während der letzten 9000 Jahre etwa 6 m relativ zur belgischen Küste.

2021 ◽  
Vol 266 ◽  
pp. 107071
Author(s):  
Alar Rosentau ◽  
Volker Klemann ◽  
Ole Bennike ◽  
Holger Steffen ◽  
Jasmin Wehr ◽  
...  

Solid Earth ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 447-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Steffen ◽  
G. Kaufmann ◽  
R. Lampe

Abstract. During the last glacial maximum, a large ice sheet covered Scandinavia, which depressed the earth's surface by several 100 m. In northern central Europe, mass redistribution in the upper mantle led to the development of a peripheral bulge. It has been subsiding since the begin of deglaciation due to the viscoelastic behaviour of the mantle. We analyse relative sea-level (RSL) data of southern Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Lithuania to determine the lithospheric thickness and radial mantle viscosity structure for distinct regional RSL subsets. We load a 1-D Maxwell-viscoelastic earth model with a global ice-load history model of the last glaciation. We test two commonly used ice histories, RSES from the Australian National University and ICE-5G from the University of Toronto. Our results indicate that the lithospheric thickness varies, depending on the ice model used, between 60 and 160 km. The lowest values are found in the Oslo Graben area and the western German Baltic Sea coast. In between, thickness increases by at least 30 km tracing the Ringkøbing-Fyn High. In Poland and Lithuania, lithospheric thickness reaches up to 160 km. However, the latter values are not well constrained as the confidence regions are large. Upper-mantle viscosity is found to bracket [2–7] × 1020 Pa s when using ICE-5G. Employing RSES much higher values of 2 × 1021 Pa s are obtained for the southern Baltic Sea. Further investigations should evaluate whether this ice-model version and/or the RSL data need revision. We confirm that the lower-mantle viscosity in Fennoscandia can only be poorly resolved. The lithospheric structure inferred from RSES partly supports structural features of regional and global lithosphere models based on thermal or seismological data. While there is agreement in eastern Europe and southwest Sweden, the structure in an area from south of Norway to northern Germany shows large discrepancies for two of the tested lithosphere models. The lithospheric thickness as determined with ICE-5G does not agree with the lithosphere models. Hence, more investigations have to be undertaken to sufficiently determine structures such as the Ringkøbing-Fyn High as seen with seismics with the help of glacial isostatic adjustment modelling.


1990 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph F. Donoghue

AbstractTrends are discernible in the estimates of late Holocene rates of sedimentation and sea-level rise for the Chesapeake Bay. During most of the Holocene Epoch sedimentation rates and relative sea-level rise were equal, within the limits of measurement, at approximately 1 mm yr−1. Sedimentation rates measured over the past century, however, are nearly an order of magnitude higher, while the rate of relative sea-level rise for the Chesapeake Bay now averages 3.3 mm yr−1, as measured on long-term tide gauge records. When the acceleration in these rates occurred is uncertain, but it appears to have been confined to the past millennium, and probably to the past few centuries. The rapid sedimentation rates recorded during historic time may be a temporary disequilibrium that has resulted from a recent acceleration in the rate of relative sea-level rise.


2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 2054-2071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leigh R. MacPherson ◽  
Arne Arns ◽  
Sönke Dangendorf ◽  
Athanasios T. Vafeidis ◽  
Jürgen Jensen
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jani Särkkä ◽  
Jani Räihä ◽  
Matti Kämäräinen ◽  
Kirsti Jylhä

<p>Coastal areas are under rapid changes. Management to face flooding hazards in changing climate is of great significance due to the major impact of flooding events in densely populated coastal regions, where also important and vulnerable infrastructure is located. The sea level of the Baltic Sea is affected by internal fluctuations caused by wind, air pressure and seiche oscillations, and by variations of the water volume due to the water exchange between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea through the Danish Straits. The highest sea level extremes are caused by cyclones moving over the region. The most vulnerable locations are at the ends of the bays. St. Petersburg, located at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, has experienced major sea floods in 1777, 1824 and 1924.</p><p>In order to study the effects of the depths and tracks of cyclones on the extreme sea levels, we have developed a method to generate cyclones for numerical sea level studies. A cyclone is modelled as a two-dimensional Gaussian function with adjustable horizontal size and depth. The cyclone moves through the Baltic Sea region with given direction and velocity. The output of this method is the gridded data set of mean sea level pressure and wind components which are used as an input for the sea level model. The internal variations of the Baltic Sea are calculated with a numerical barotropic sea level model, and the water volume variations are evaluated using a statistical sea level model based on wind speeds near the Danish Straits. The sea level model simulations allow us to study extremely rare but physically plausible sea level events that have not occurred during the observation period at the Baltic Sea coast. The simulation results are used to investigate extreme sea levels that could occur at selected sites at the Finnish coastline.</p>


2008 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 384-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit Hünicke ◽  
Jürg Luterbacher ◽  
Andreas Pauling ◽  
Eduardo Zorita

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralf Weisse ◽  
Inga Dailidiene ◽  
Birgit Hünicke ◽  
Kimmo Kahma ◽  
Kristine Madsen ◽  
...  

Abstract. There are a large number of geophysical processes affecting sea level dynamics and coastal erosion in the Baltic Sea region. These processes operate on a large range of spatial and temporal scales and are observed in many other coastal regions worldwide. Together with the outstanding number of long data records, this makes the Baltic Sea a unique laboratory for advancing our knowledge on interactions between processes steering sea level and erosion in a climate change context. Processes contributing to sea level dynamics and coastal erosion in the Baltic Sea include the still ongoing visco-elastic response of the Earth to the last deglaciation, contributions from global and North Atlantic mean sea level changes, or from wind waves affecting erosion and sediment transport along the subsiding southern Baltic Sea coast. Other examples are storm surges, seiches, or meteotsunamis contributing primarily to sea level extremes. All such processes have undergone considerable variations and changes in the past. For example, over the past about 50 years, the Baltic absolute (geocentric) mean sea level rose at a rate slightly larger than the global average. In the northern parts, due to vertical land movements, relative sea level decreased. Sea level extremes are strongly linked to variability and changes in the large-scale atmospheric circulation. Patterns and mechanisms contributing to erosion and accretion strongly depend on hydrodynamic conditions and their variability. For large parts of the sedimentary shores of the Baltic Sea, the wave climate and the angle at which the waves approach the nearshore are the dominant factors, and coastline changes are highly sensitive to even small variations in these driving forces. Consequently, processes contributing to Baltic sea level dynamics and coastline change are expected to vary and to change in the future leaving their imprint on future Baltic sea level and coastline change and variability. Because of the large number of contributing processes, their relevance for understanding global figures, and the outstanding data availability, we argue that global sea level research and research on coastline changes may greatly benefit from research undertaken in the Baltic Sea.


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