Abstract: Sudden Change: Climate and Sea Level

William F. Tanner

Dates, magnitudes and rates of Holocene sea-level changes were reviewed at the 1995 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Richard B. Alley (Penn. State U.) described laminae in Greenland ice cores, with details at the annual level. A major event of unknown nature occurred at roughly 8,000 B.P. Gerard Bond (Lamont-Doherty Observ., N.Y.) described sediment cores from the North Atlantic, with a major event at 8,000 B.P. Published work of K. S. Petersen (Danish Geol. Survey) from a well near Vust (Denmark) was reviewed: A rapid sea level rise (25 m), then a similar drop centered at 8,000 B.P. at 8-15 cm/yr.

W. F. Tanner (Florida State U.) described the beach ridge plain in northern Denmark, where a sequence of more than 270 Holocene ridges shows the date of the big Mid-Holocene sea level change couplet, 8,000 B.P., with a magnitude of "more than 14 m," plus smaller changes. These data showed vertical magnitudes of the larger sea level events (except the Mid-Holocene catastrophe) in the range of 1-to-5 meters. W. C. Parker (Florida State) sought possible cycles in the same sequence, but they were too poorly defined for detailed forecasts.

Charles R. Bentley (U. of Wisconsin) examined the possibility of an early collapse of the West Antarctic marine ice sheet, with a sea level rise of about 5 meters, but concluded that it is unlikely.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90955©1995 GCAGS 45th Annual Meeting and Gulf Section SEPM, Baton Rouge, Louisiana