scholarly journals Sea-Level Variability in the Arabian Gulf in Comparison with Global Oceans

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 4524
Author(s):  
Abdullah M. Al-Subhi ◽  
Cheriyeri P. Abdulla

The availability of nearly three decades of sea-level estimates from satellite altimetry, for the period from 1993 to the present, is exploited for understanding the climatology of sea level and its long-term variability in the Arabian Gulf (also known as the Persian Gulf) in comparison with global oceans. The Arabian Gulf is characterized by a lower sea level from February to May and a higher sea level from September to December, with a maximum in November and a minimum in April. The variability of sea level in the Arabian Gulf is significantly different and nearly opposite to the pattern of sea-level changes in the adjacent marginal basin, the Red Sea. The analysis of low-passed sea level using the empirical orthogonal function and principal component analysis showed that the first mode of variability explains 87.9% of the long-term variability and the second mode explains nearly half of the remaining variability (5.6%). The linear long-term trends in sea level are 2.58 mm/year for the Northern Arabian Gulf and 3.14 mm/year for its southern part, with an average of 2.92 mm/year for the entire Gulf. The analysis of sea level in the Arabian Sea showed a faster rate of sea level rise in the post-2000 period. The long-term linear trend for the post-2000 period in the Northern Arabian Gulf is 4.06 mm/year, and in the southern Gulf it is 4.44 mm/year, with an average trend of 4.29 mm/year. Under the RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5 scenarios, the numerical projections show an expected rise in sea level in the Arabian Gulf by 8.1, 1.3, and 6.8 cm by 2050, and by 16.9, 17.7, 39.1 cm, respectively by the end of the 21st century.

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Lambert ◽  
Kenneth Prandy ◽  
Wendy Bottero

This paper discusses long term trends in patterns of intergenerational social mobility in Britain. We argue that there is convincing empirical evidence of a small but steady linear trend towards increasing social mobility throughout the period 1800-2004. Our conclusions are based upon the construction and analysis of an extended micro-social dataset, which combines records from an historical genealogical study, with responses from 31 sample surveys conducted over the period 1963-2004. There has been much previous study of trends in social mobility, and little consensus on their nature. We argue that this dissension partly results from the very slow pace of change in mobility rates, which makes the time-frame of any comparison crucial, and raises important methodological questions about how long-term change in mobility is best measured. We highlight three methodological difficulties which arise when trying to draw conclusions over mobility trends - concerning the extent of controls for life course effects; the quality of data resources; and the measurement of stratification positions. After constructing a longitudinal dataset which attempts to confront these difficulties, our analyses provide robust evidence which challenges hitherto more popular, politicised claims of declining or unchanging mobility. By contrast, our findings suggest that Britain has moved, and continues to move, steadily towards increasing equality in the relationship between occupational attainment and parental background.


2019 ◽  
Vol 498 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Wagreich ◽  
Benjamin Sames ◽  
Malcolm Hart ◽  
Ismail O. Yilmaz

AbstractThe International Geoscience Programme Project IGCP 609 addressed correlation, causes and consequences of short-term sea-level fluctuations during the Cretaceous. Processes causing several ka to several Ma (third- to fourth-order) sea-level oscillations during the Cretaceous are so far poorly understood. IGCP 609 proved the existence of sea-level cycles during potential ice sheet-free greenhouse to hothouse climate phases. These sea-level fluctuations were most probably controlled by aquifer-eustasy that is altering land-water storage owing to groundwater aquifer charge and discharge. The project investigated Cretaceous sea-level cycles in detail in order to differentiate and quantify both short- and long-term records based on orbital cyclicity. High-resolution sea-level records were correlated to the geological timescale resulting in a hierarchy of sea-level cycles in the longer Milankovitch band, especially in the 100 ka, 405 ka, 1.2 Ma and 2.4 Ma range. The relation of sea-level highs and lows to palaeoclimate events, palaeoenvironments and biota was also investigated using multiproxy studies. For a hothouse Earth such as the mid-Cretaceous, humid–arid climate cycles controlling groundwater-related sea-level change were evidenced by stable isotope data, correlation to continental lake-level records and humid–arid weathering cycles.


1999 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.Roland Gehrels

A relative sea-level history is reconstructed for Machiasport, Maine, spanning the past 6000 calendar year and combining two different methods. The first method establishes the long-term (103 yr) trend of sea-level rise by dating the base of the Holocene saltmarsh peat overlying a Pleistocene substrate. The second method uses detailed analyses of the foraminiferal stratigraphy of two saltmarsh peat cores to quantify fluctuations superimposed on the long-term trend. The indicative meaning of the peat (the height at which the peat was deposited relative to mean tide level) is calculated by a transfer function based on vertical distributions of modern foraminiferal assemblages. The chronology is determined from AMS 14C dates on saltmarsh plant fragments embedded in the peat. The combination of the two different approaches produces a high-resolution, replicable sea-level record, which takes into account the autocompaction of the peat sequence. Long-term mean rates of sea-level rise, corrected for changes in tidal range, are 0.75 mm/yr between 6000 and 1500 cal yr B.P. and 0.43 mm/yr during the past 1500 year. The foraminiferal stratigraphy reveals several low-amplitude fluctuations during a relatively stable period between 1100 and 400 cal yr B.P., and a sea-level rise of 0.5 m during the past 300 year.


2004 ◽  
Vol 141 (6) ◽  
pp. 717-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. AURELL ◽  
B. BÁDENAS

The outcrops of the Sierra de Albarracín (NE Spain) allow a precise reconstruction of the shallow sedimentary domains of a late Kimmeridgian carbonate ramp, developed in western marginal areas of the Iberian Basin. The sedimentary record shows a hierarchical sequence stratigraphic organization, which implies sea-level changes of different frequencies. The studied succession is arranged in a long-term transgressive–regressive sequence, which is likely to reflect local variation in the subsidence rates. This sequence includes four higher-order sequences A to D, which have variable thickness (from 3 to 21 m). The similar sedimentary evolution observed in distant localities suggests the existence of high-frequency sea-level fluctuations controlling the sequence development. The average amplitude of these cycles would range from 5 to 10 m. The precise estimation of their duration (some few hundreds of kyr) and their possible assignment to any of the long-term orbital cycles (the 100 or the 400 kyr eccentricity cycles) is uncertain. Sequences A and B, formed during the long-term transgressive interval, are relatively thin (from 3 to 9 m) give-up sequences that were never subaerially exposed. These sequences are locally formed by five shallowing-upward elementary sequences. Sequences C and D are catch-down sequences with evidence of emersion of subtidal facies. Sequence C, formed during the stage of maximum gain of long-term accommodation, is the thickest sequence (from 13 to 21 m) and includes coral–microbial reefs (pinnacles up to 16 m in height). The increased production rates were able to fill part of the accommodation created during the early stage of high-frequency sea-level rise and the shallow platform was eventually exposed to subaereal erosion and meteoric cementation.


2002 ◽  
Vol 81 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 329-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Maddy

AbstractThe Pleistocene development of the lower Severn valley is recorded in the fluvial sediments of the Mathon and Severn Valley Formations and their relationship to the glacigenic Wolston (Oxygen Isotope Stage 12), Ridgacre (OIS 6) and Stockport (OIS 2) Formations. The most complete stratigraphical record is that of the Severn Valley Formation, which post-dates the Anglian Wolston Formation and comprises a flight of river terraces, the highest of which is c.50 m above the present river. The terrace staircase indicates that the Severn has progressively incised its valley during the post-Anglian period. The terrace sediments are predominantly composed of fluvially deposited sands and gravels, largely the result of deposition in high-energy rivers under cold-climate conditions. Occasionally towards the base of these terrace deposits low-energy fluvial facies are preserved which contain faunal remains and yield geochronology which support their correlation with interglacial conditions. This simple stratigraphy supports a climate-driven model for the timing of terrace aggradation and incision, with the incision mode at its most effective during the cold-warm transitions and the aggradational mode at its most effective during warm-cold climate transitions. The chronology of terrace aggradation in the lower Severn seems to correspond with the Milankovitch lOOka climate cycles. The timing of incision events suggests that base level (eustatic sea-level) changes do not play a significant role i.e. incision occurs as sea-level is rising.Although climate change is significant in governing the timing of incision, the long-term incision of the River Severn appears to be driven by crustal uplift. A long-term incision rate of 0.15 m ka1, calculated using the base of the terrace deposits, is believed to closely equate with the long-term uplift rate. Superimposed on this long-term uplift are periods of complex terrace sequence development resulting from rapid incision during periods of glacio-isostatic rebound, with large incision events reflecting the rebound adjustment to late glacial stage isostatic depression. However, in no case in the Severn valley has glacial encroachment led to enhanced incision, suggesting that there has been no additional uplift resulting from isostatic compensation for glacial erosion.


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