--> Abstract: Sea Level Change in the Baltic Sea: Interrelation of Climatic and Geologic Processes, by Jan Harff, Alexander Frischbutter, Reinhard Lampe, and Michael Meyer; #90914(2000)

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Jan Harff1, Alexander Frischbutter2, Reinhard Lampe3, Michael Meyer3
(1) Baltic Sea Research Institute, Warnemuende, Germany
(2) GeoForschungszentrum, Potsdam, Germany
(3) University of Greifswald, Germany

Abstract: Sea Level Change in the Baltic Sea: Interrelation of Climatic and Geologic Processes

The development of the Baltic Sea is largely controlled by climatically driven eustatic sea level change and vertical crustal movements during the Holocene. Both factors are reflected in the records of relative sea level change and differ remarkably around the Baltic Sea. The comparison of relative sea level curves with a eustatic curve reveals the contribution of vertical crustal movement to the coastal change process. A coast index c(i) is derived by which a location can be allocated to either a 'crustal uplift/subsidence type' or a 'climate controlled type'. Coastal locations investigated along the Fennoscandian Shield belong to the crustal-uplift type, locations along the southern and southwestern coast belong to the climate controlled type independent of their position on the East-European or the West-European Platform. Data on recent vertical crustal movements show a broad, predominantly subsiding zone between the rising blocks of Scandinavia (glacio-isostatic uplift) and the Carpathians (northward drift of the African Plate), to the west of the Tornquist-Teisseyre Zone additionally influenced by North Atlantic Ridge movements. The analysis of relative sea level changes leads to the assumption that the subsidence of a belt contiguous to the Fennoscandian Shield - interpreted as a collapsing asthenospheric bulge in front of former Pleistocene glaciers - reached a steady state during the Late Litorina Stage. Crustal movement data together with data from modeling of future sea level change can be used for the sustainable development of coastal areas.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90914©2000 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana