Sea-level changes

Relative sea level changes affect many shallow marine and coastal depositional environments. 

Vail, P. R. and Herdenbol, J. (1979). Sea-level changes during the Tertiary. Oceanus 12,71-79. 

Chappell J (1974) Geology of coral terraces, Huon Peninsula, New Gttinea A study of (Quaternary tectonic movements and sea-level changes. Geol Soc Am Bttll 85 553-570 Chappell J (1996) Reconciliation of late (Quaternary sea levels derived from coral terraces at Huon Peninsttla with deep sea oxygen isotope records. Earth Planet Sci Lett 141 227-236... 

Dissertation, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minnesota Gallup CD, Cheng H, Taylor FW, Edwards RL (2002) Direct determination of the timing of sea level change during termination 11. Science 295 310-313... 

Yang H-S, Nozaki Y, Sakai H (1986) The distribution of h and Pa in the deep-sea sttrface sediments of the Pacific Oceaa Geochim Cosmochim Acta 50 81-89 Yokoyama T, Esat TM, Lambeck K (2001) Coupled chmate and sea-level changes deduced from Huon Peninsttla coral terraces of the last ice age. Earth Planet Sci Lett 193 579-587 Yu E-F, Francois R, Bacon MP, Fleer AP (2001a) Flttxes of h and Pa to the deep sea Implicatiotts for the interpretation of excess °Th and Th profiles in sediments. Earth Planet Sci Lett 191(3-4) 219-230... 

Shallow-water embayments provide a mechanism to isolate seawater so that evaporation can raise salt ion concentrations. Arid climates are required to ensure that the rate of water loss from evaporation exceeds the rate of water supply by rainfell, groundwater seeps, or river runoff. Seawater can be resupplied continuously via a type of antiestuar-ine circulation as illustrated in Figure 17.2 or episodically as a result of sea level change, plate tectonics, or very high tides and storm surges. 

Phanerozoic sea level change. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 237, 524-531. 

Jones 2001). According to sea level changes, the last Ice Age, centered at 18,000 years ago, was even colder than now (3-4 C) (Lamheck 2001). In contrast, the Medieval Warm Period was wanner than now (0.5 C), and both the Interglacial Period (130,000 y from now) and the Eocene Warm period (33-53 My from now) were even warmer (3-4 C) (Webb 1992). 

Lambeck, K. Chappell, J. (2001) Sea level change through the last glacial cycle. Science, 292, 679-86. 

To assess and quantify the impacts of past and future climatic variability and change on components of the cryosphere and their consequences, particularly for global energy and water budgets, frozen ground conditions, sea level change, and the maintenance of polar sea ice covers. 

Of the 19 LAII projects 3 are part of the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX), which looks at the response of plant communities to climate change. Three others are concerned with atmosphere processes, including weather patterns affecting snowmelt, Arctic-wide temperature trends, and water vapor over the Arctic and its relationship with atmospheric circulation and surface conditions. Another project deals with the response of birds to climate and sea level change at river deltas, and yet another studies the balance and recent volume changes of McCall Glacier in the Brooks Range. 

Figure 9.16. Observed sea level changes over time and calculated range (shaded area) of sea level variation owing to thermal expansion of ocean water. Dotted line = ATeq of 5.6°C Short-dashed line= ATeq of 2.8°C Long-dashed line = ATeq of 1.4°C. (After Gornitz et al., 1982.)...

---