Evidence for a rapid sea-level rise 7600 yr ago
- 1Department of Geology/Quaternary Sciences, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, SE–223 62 Lund, Sweden
- 2Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Abstract
Dating the transgression and subsequent regression in marginal basins of the southeastern Swedish Baltic Sea provides a new perspective of global ice-volume changes and the isostatic adjustment of the mantle after the retreat of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet from this area. Superimposed upon a smooth pattern of local sea-level rise, acceleration occurred ca. 7600 calibrated (cal) yr B.P., evidenced as a nearly synchronous flooding in six elevated basins ranging from 3.0 to 7.2 m above present sea level. We ascribe this rapid local sea-level rise of ∼4.5 m to a sudden increase in ocean mass, most likely caused by the final decay of the Labrador sector of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The subsequent monotonic fall of local sea level from ca. 6500 cal yr B.P. to the present is mainly an expression of the slow isostatic adjustment of the mantle.
-
- Accepted 14 May 2007.
- Received 30 March 2007.
- Revision received 3 May 2007.
- The Geological Society of America, Inc.
