Reservoir volumes of water

Ice volume & equivalent water depth

The geoid – mean “sea level”

Map prior to satellite records

Modern geoid (SL) – areas of high variability

SL variability greatest near major currents

Gulf Stream and Loop Current

Oceanographic Satellites1978 SEASAT sea-surface temperature and chlorophyll (productivity)1992 TOPEX & JASON

Geometry of satellite altimetry

Defining the geoid

TOPEX

TOPEX Dynamic Topography

TOPEX

TOPEX Wave Height

Mean dynamic topography, Atlantic

Gulf Stream rings

Dynamic topography

Satellite tracks across the Gulf Stream

Ice and isostasy

The basic idea has been around for a while

RSL over last 5 ka

variable responseglobally

Submerging coasts

> 2 mm / yr

Local effectsshoreline configuration

Greater hydro-isostatic depression for promontory

Local effects on apparent sea level

Increased tidal range within an embayment

Choose your RSL curve

North America Away from the big ice

North America

northern areas

Modeling the forebulge

Local to regional effect

Retreat of the forebulge

RSL Atlantic Coast of Canada

RSL Europe

RSL East Asia

Global pattern of RSL >50 yrs

Tide-gauge records

Isostatic rebound

Regional RSL curves Great Britain

Global tectonic effects on RSL

1 Ma to 100 Ma

Timing of late Quaternary highstands

A. Chappell & Shackleton 1986 B. Shackleton 1987C. Bloom & Yonekura 1990

Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea

Shoreline terraces preserved by uplift

Earthquakes on the Huon Peninsula

Huon Peninsula

text

Cutting coastal terraces

Several options for the same terrace setting

Stage 5e on the Huon Peninsula

The “prominent terrace”

Late Quaternary highstand reference points

Barbados

Huon Peninsula

Huon Peninsula record compared with the marine isotope record

Chronology – close enough?

The Fairbanks curve

U-series on corals from Barbados