Late Pleistocene to Holocene Sea Level Curve Derived from South Carolina Coastal Terraces: a Correlatable Datum for Both the O18 and Coral Reef Terrace Sea Level Curves?

William R. Doar¹ and Christopher G. Kendall^2
1South Carolina Geological Survey, 5 Geology Road, Columbia, SC
²Geological Sciences, University South Carolina, Columbia, SC

Traced from landward to seaward, the elevations of Pleistocene to Holocene coastal terraces of South Carolina from oldest to youngest are: 1.2 my at 90 ft, 700 ky at 70 ft, 400 ky at 57ft, 200 ky at 35 ft, 120 ky at 25 ft, 80 ky at 17 ft, between 70 and 20 ky at 10 ft, and 3 ky at 3 ft above mean sea level. These terraces have a similar frequency and elevation to those of other southeastern and Gulf Coast States suggesting that the southeastern rim to the USA has had a uniform tectonic history.

The dimensions of a sea level curve based on these eight highstand deposits suggest that older sea level events were higher in elevation than that predicted by sea level curves determined from O18 values of oceanic pelagic and benthic foraminifera, while the younger events matched or were higher than that predicted by O18 curves. The data from coral reef terraces had partial matches throughout. The timing of all but the youngest two events from South Carolina match those of the O18 curves and coral reef terraces.

The South Carolina curve suggests that while ice melted from terrestrial settings around the world, ice was and is being stored in the Antarctic sheets.

The 3rd order eustatic changes derived from South Carolina data are in a negative direction and indicate long term climatic cooling. In contrast the modern 4th order warming trend is superimposed on this cooling curve

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas