WALIS - Towards a global database of Last Interglacial sea-level proxies.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Rovere ◽  
Deirdre Ryan ◽  
Matteo Vacchi ◽  
Alexander Simms ◽  
Andrea Dutton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Geological Data ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Global Database ◽  
The World ◽  
First Results ◽  
Data Points ◽  
The Subject

<p>The standardization of geological data, and their compilation into geodatabases, is essential to allow more coherent regional and global analyses. In sea-level studies, the compilation of databases containing details on geological paleo sea-level proxies has been the subject of decades of work. This was largely spearheaded by the community working on Holocene timescales. While several attempts were also made to compile data from older interglacials, a truly comprehensive approach was missing. Here, we present the ongoing efforts directed to create the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS), a project spearheaded by the PALSEA (PAGES/INQUA) community and funded by the European Research Council (ERC StG 802414). The project aims at building a sea-level database centered on the Last Interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 5e, 125 ka), a period of time considered as an "imperfect analog" for a future warmer climate. The database is composed of 17 tables embedded into a mySQL framework with a total of more than 500 single fields to describe several properties related to paleo sea-level proxies, dated samples and metadata. In this presentation, we will show the first results of the global compilation, which includes nearly 2000 data points and will discuss its relevance in answering some of the most pressing questions related to sea-level changes in past warmer worlds. </p>

scholarly journals Evaluating the Economic Cost of Coastal Flooding

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 444-486
Author(s):  
Klaus Desmet ◽  
Robert E. Kopp ◽  
Scott A. Kulp ◽  
Dávid Krisztián Nagy ◽  
Michael Oppenheimer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Coastal Flooding ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Present Value ◽  
Real Gdp ◽  
The World ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Intermediate Scenario

Sea level rise will cause spatial shifts in economic activity over the next 200 years. Using a spatially disaggregated, dynamic model of the world economy, this paper estimates the consequences of probabilistic projections of local sea level changes. Under an intermediate scenario of greenhouse gas emissions, permanent flooding is projected to reduce global real GDP by 0.19 percent in present value terms. By the year 2200, a projected 1.46 percent of the population will be displaced. Losses in coastal localities are much larger. When ignoring the dynamic response of investment and migration, the loss in real GDP in 2200 increases from 0.11 percent to 4.5 percent. (JEL E23, F01, Q54, Q56)

A standardized database of Last Interglacial sea-level indicators in southeast Asia: Records from coral reef terraces in a tectonically complex region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrine Maxwell ◽  
Hildegard Westphal ◽  
Alessio Rovere
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Tectonic Setting ◽  
Sea Level Change ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Level Change ◽  
Se Asia

<p>The Last Interglacial (LIG), as well as other warmer periods in the Earth’s geologic history, provides an analogue for predicted warming conditions in the near future. Analysis of sea-level indicators during this period is important in constraining regional drivers of relative sea-level change (RSL) and in modeling future trajectories of sea-level rise. In southeast Asia, several studies have been done to examine LIG sea-level indicators such as coral reef terraces and tidal notches. A synthesis of the state-of-the-art of the LIG RSL indicators in the region, meanwhile, has yet to be done. We reviewed over 50 published works on the LIG RSL indicators in southeast Asia and used the framework of the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) in building a standardized database of previously published LIG RSL indicators in the region. In total, we identified 38 unique RSL indicators and inserted almost 140 ages in the database. Available data from Indonesia, the Philippines, and East Timor points to variable elevation of sea-level indicators during the LIG highlighting the complex tectonic setting of this region. Variable uplift rates (from as low as 0.02 to as high as 1.1 m/ka) were reported in the study areas echoing various collision and subduction processes influencing these sites. Although several age constraints and elevation measurements have been provided by these studies, more data is still needed to shed more light on the RSL changes in the region. With this effort under the WALIS framework, we hope to identify gaps in the LIG RSL indicators literature in SE Asia and recognize potential areas that can be visited for future work. We also hope that this initiative will help us further understand the different drivers of past sea-level changes in SE Asia and will provide inputs for projections of sea-level change in the future.</p>

SEA LEVEL CHANGES: How Alaska Affects the World

Science ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 297 (5580) ◽  
pp. 350-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. F. Meier
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
The World

14C Age Offset in the Mar Piccolo Sea Basin in Taranto (Southern Italy) Estimated on Cerastoderma Glaucum (Poiret, 1789)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 1387-1401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianluca Quarta ◽  
Paola Fago ◽  
Lucio Calcagnile ◽  
Giulia Cipriano ◽  
Marisa D’Elia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Morphological Evolution ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Cerastoderma Glaucum ◽  
14C Age ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Stratigraphic Succession

ABSTRACTThe stratigraphic succession of the Mar Piccolo basin (Gulf of Taranto, Southern Italy) is well known in the scientific literature dealing with the last interglacial since its morphological evolution is influenced by sea level changes during Late Pleistocene-Holocene. The local Holocene sea level history is well known thanks to data deriving from peat and ash layers identified in different sediment cores obtained underwater and in coastal areas. Peat sediments are frequently interlayed with muddy-sand beds rich in Cerastoderma glaucum (Poiret, 1789). In the literature of the Mediterranean basin, AMS 14C dating on C. glaucum is widely used also in paleo-environmental reconstruction because this bivalve is considered an useful marker of sea level, though in lagoonal systems, large age offsets have been reported in different areas. Due to the availability of precise chronological and geochronological markers, in order to validate the use of C. glaucum in paleo sea level reconstruction, AMS 14C dating campaign was carried out on this bivalve deriving from several cores drilled in the Mar Piccolo basin and its nearby areas. Nineteen AMS 14C dating analyses carried out on C. glaucum sampled from different sediment cores up to a maximum of 30 m from the seafloor are presented. These results show an inconsistency of the ages in relation to a sea-level rise reconstruction model. The interpretation of the data was performed after the estimation of the local age offset calculated by analyzing six live samples, collected in 2017 in Mar Piccolo and in Croatia, and two samples dated to 1968–1969. The results show that for both the classes of samples (2017 and 1960s) an age offset ranging from 600 to 800 yr can be estimated.

Sea-level changes

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Hallam
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Intellectual Stimulation ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Rock Formations ◽  
Global Correlation ◽  
Sediment Types ◽  
Ecological Aspects ◽  
The Subject

In earlier times many geologists clearly became cynical about what they had learned as students about Earth history from their stratigraphy courses. ‘The sea comes in, the sea goes out.’ This is indeed one of the most striking signals that emerges from study of the stratigraphic record in a given region: a succession of marine transgressions and regressions on the continents. Little scientific rigour was, however, applied to the subject, and students were left with no overarching explanation to provide any intellectual stimulation. Since the 1970s things have begun to change for the better, as less emphasis has been placed on learning the names of rock formations and fossil zones and more on the dynamic aspects of what to many ranks as a fascinating subject. This entails studying changing geographies and climates within a framework supplied by plate tectonics, the successions of strata being subjected to ever-more-rigorous sedimentological and geochemical analysis, and global correlation continually improved by further study of stratigraphically useful fossils. How do we infer sea-level changes from a given succession of sedimentary rocks? In essence we use facies analysis, which is based upon a careful study of the sediment types and structures, together with a study of the ecological aspects of the contained fossils, or palaeoecology. These features can be compared with those of similar sediments that are being deposited today, or similar organisms living today. Comparisons of this kind were practised by the likes of Cuvier as well as Lyell. Consider, for example, the Cretaceous succession in southern England. The oldest strata, well exposed on the coast from Sussex to Dorset, are known as the Wealden, and consist mainly of sandstones and siltstones that were deposited in a coastal plain (non-marine) setting. They are overlain by the Lower Greensand, a sandy unit of Aptian–Lower Albian age laid down in a very shallow marine environment. These conditions are revealed, not just by the types of fossils, which include the exclusively marine ammonites, but also by the distinctive green clay mineral glauconite, which gives its name to the rock formation and occurs today only in marine settings.

Opening up a Last-Interglacial Sea Level Database for the Southern North Sea area

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Tidal Range ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Level Indicator ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Indicator Data ◽  
Sea Area

<p>As contribution to the ongoing research programmes RISeR (Dr. Barlow, Univ. Leeds, UK), WARMCOASTS (Dr. Rovere, Marum Bremen, GER) and LOSS (Dr. Stouthamer and consortium, Utrecht Univ., NL), and in more general effort to correctly deal with legacy geological data in the current era of Open Science and Geodata Science, we are populating the WARMCOASTS-WALIS database with entries for the Last-Interglacial sea-level indicator data points as available for the Southern North Sea area. This part of the world in in the immediate near field of the Scandinavian-British ice mass centre at interglacial temperate latitudes.</p><p>The majority of the sea-level indicator data points are of siliciclastic sedimentary type: transgressive contacts of marine muds over basal peats, insolation basin lakes becoming brackish marine, regressive peats establishing on tidal flat tops and so on. The abundance of peat and tradition of palynological investigation of these beds is important to date stratigraphical levels. The floating varve-count based PAZ-duration chronology for the Eemian vegetation succession in NW Europe (Zagwijn1996:QSR) allows to resolve floating ages to submillenial scale in the transgressive limb (PAZs E1-E4 and subzones), and to millennial scale in the high stand (coincident with PAZ E5) and regressive limb (starting at the PAZ E5/E6 break; Zagwijn1983:GeologieMijnbouw). Chronostratigraphical database entries for each zone and subzone have been filed in the WALIS database, informing on the varve count durations (floating time scale). Absolute age is left more broad, as there is some uncertainty and wiggle room and difference of opinion in the timing of the palynological NW European Eemian relative to that Termination II in the MIS and coral records (SierEtAl2015:QGeochron; LongEtAl2015:QSR).</p><p>Sedimentary environment analogies are drawn with the Holocene transgression and high stand to identify and classify localities as being sea-level indicator points (SLIPs), Marine limiting points, or Terrestrial limiting points. Analogies with the Holocene relative sea-level rise reconstruction practice (e.g. Hijma&Cohen2019:QSR) also echo in the protocols followed to characterize and document the vertical position of the indicator. Data entry requires to assess depth of contact (at present, expressed to a specified datum), implied depth position of past mean sea level (factoring in tidal range, palaeowater depth, background vertical movement, (de)compaction), and uncertainties to that depth (added up according to error propagation rules).</p><p>We compare our re-assessed and standardized database entries for longer established sites to the originally reported reconstructed sea-level positions (e.g. Zagwijn1983) and to their discussion in later publications (2000s, 2010s). What is one point in Zagwijn1983, often becomes an assemblage of terrestrial limiting, SLIPs and marine limiting entries in WALIS. We find the North Sea data in some earlier ‘table style’ global compilations to have suffered from generalisations. We find the protocolised database approaches as established by PALSEA activities (e.g. ShennanEtAl(Eds)2015: Handbook of Sea-Level Research; KahnEtAl(Eds)2019: QSR special issue) a more suitable environment to store and open up regional data for correct in-take and reuse by second/third parties - whether LOSS, WARMCOAST, RISeR, or you.</p>

Eustatic control of late Quaternary sea-level change in the Arabian/Persian Gulf

2014 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Stevens ◽  
Matthew J. Jestico ◽  
Graham Evans ◽  
Anthony Kirkham
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Osl Dating ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Coastal Evolution ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Sea Level Variations ◽  
The Last Glacial

AbstractAccurate sea-level reconstruction is critical in understanding the drivers of coastal evolution. Inliers of shallow marine limestone and aeolianite are exposed as zeugen (carbonate-capped erosional remnants) on the southern coast of the Arabian/Persian Gulf. These have generally been accepted as evidence of a eustatically driven, last-interglacial relative sea-level highstand preceded by a penultimate glacial-age lowstand. Instead, recent optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating suggests a last glacial age for these deposits, requiring >100 m of uplift since the last glacial maximum in order to keep pace with eustatic sea-level rise and implying the need for a wholesale revision of tectonic, stratigraphic and sea-level histories of the Gulf. These two hypotheses have radically different implications for regional neotectonics and land–sea distribution histories. Here we test these hypotheses using OSL dating of the zeugen formations. These new ages are remarkably consistent with earlier interpretations of the formations being last interglacial or older in age, showing that tectonic movements are negligible and eustatic sea-level variations are responsible for local sea-level changes in the Gulf. The cause of the large age differences between recent studies is unclear, although it appears related to large differences in the measured accumulated dose in different OSL samples.

scholarly journals The Staircase Structure of the Southern Brazilian Continental Shelf

2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
M. S. Baptista ◽  
L. A. Conti
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Devil's Staircase ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Devil’S Staircase ◽  
The World ◽  
Sea Level Variations ◽  
Staircase Structure ◽  
Global Sea Level

We show some evidences that the Southeastern Brazilian Continental Shelf (SBCS) has a devil's staircase structure, with a sequence of scarps and terraces with widths that obey fractal formation rules. Since the formation of these features is linked with the sea-level variations, we say that the sea level changes in an organized pulsating way. Although the proposed approach was applied in a particular region of the Earth, it is suitable to be applied in an integrated way to other shelves around the world, since the analyses favor the revelation of the global sea-level variations.

Coastal interglacial deposits of the English Channel

1960 ◽  
Vol 243 (701) ◽  
pp. 95-133 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Pollen Analysis ◽  
Brackish Water ◽  
High Tide ◽  
English Channel ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Marine Transgression ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Eemian Interglacial

Fossiliferous Late-Pleistocene deposits on the foreshore of the English Channel at Selsey (Sussex), Stone (Hampshire), and near Arromanches (Calvados), have been investigated. At each site analyses of pollen, macroscopic plant remains and Mollusca have been made and from these vegetational, faunal, environmental and climatic conditions have been reconstructed. At Selsey, it is shown that the deposits, which lie in a channel cut in Eocene rocks, are of Ipswichian (Eemian or Last) Interglacial age. Pollen analysis of the sediments of the channel filling show they were formed during zones b , c , d , e and f of this interglacial from open parkland vegetation to birch-, to pine-, to oak-dominated forests. Analysis of the macroscopic plant remains and of the molluscs suggests a rapid climatic amelioration at the beginning of the interglacial, so that by the beginning of zone f there are indications of summer warmth exceeding that of the present day in the area. In the upper part of the channel filling, estuarine deposits overlie freshwater deposits. It is shown that the marine transgression causing the change was taking place in zone f and was probably responsible later for the raised beach deposits which overlie the channel deposits and which form the cliffs at Selsey Bill. At Stone pollen analysis shows that brackish water deposits, below present high tide level, were formed in zone f of the Ipswichian Interglacial. At that time Quercus , Pinus and Acer were the chief trees forming the forest in the region. The macroscopic plant remains and the Mollusca indicate that the deposit was formed under saltmarsh conditions. As at Selsey, the raised beach gravel found overlying the interglacial deposit is related to the same marine transgression that produced the brackish water conditions. Near Arromanches, at St Côme de Fresne and Asnelles-Belle-Plage, two deposits showing a change from marine to freshwater sediments were investigated. The analysis of pollen and the Mollusca showed the prevalence of pine forest and its replacement by open steppe-like conditions as the marine regression occurred. After the regression, limon covered the freshwater deposits. The fossiliferous deposits are tentatively correlated with zone i of the Eemian Interglacial. The relative land- and sea-level changes indicated by all the deposits are considered. It is concluded that in the English Channel, during the Ipswichian (Eemian) Interglacial, sea level rose above its present height in zone f and fell below it during zone i . The Selsey-Brighton raised beach and the Normannien II raised beach are correlated with the same marine transgression. It is pointed out that if the Selsey-Brighton raised beach is to be correlated with the Monastirian II level of 7—8 m, then this level should be correlated with the Ipswichian (Eemian) Interglacial.

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