Onset of recent rapid sea-level rise in the western Atlantic Ocean

Gehrels, W. R., Kirby, J. R., Prokoph, A., Newnham, R. M., Achterberg, E. P., Evans, H., Black, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1396-4821 and Scott, D. B. (2005) Onset of recent rapid sea-level rise in the western Atlantic Ocean. Quaternary Science Reviews, 24 (18-19). pp. 2083-2100. ISSN 0277-3791 doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.11.016

Abstract/Summary

A high-resolution record of sea-level change spanning the past 1000 years is derived from foraminiferal and chronological analyses of a 2m thick salt-marsh peat sequence at Chezzetcook, Nova Scotia, Canada. Former mean tide level positions are reconstructed with a precision of +/- 0.055 in using a transfer function derived from distributions of modern salt-marsh foraminifera. Our age model for the core section older than 300 years is based on 19 AMS C-14 ages and takes into account the individual probability distributions of calibrated radiocarbon ages. The past 300 years is dated by pollen and the isotopes Pb-206, Pb-207, Pb-210, Cs-137 and Am-241. Between AD 1000 and AD 1800, relative sea level rose at a mean rate of 17cm per century. Apparent pre-industrial rises of sea level dated at AD 1500-1550 and AD 1700-1800 cannot be clearly distinguished when radiocarbon age errors are taken into account. Furthermore, they may be an artefact of fluctuations in atmospheric C-14 production. In the 19th century sea level rose at a mean rate of 1.6mm/yr. Between AD 1900 and AD 1920, sea-level rise accelerated to the modern mean rate of 3.2mm/yr. This acceleration corresponds in time with global temperature rise and may therefore be associated with recent global warming. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.