Department of Earth and Environmental Science

Quaternary sea-level changes along the Atlantic Coast of the United States: Implications for glacial isostatic adjustment models and current rates of sea-level change

The aim of this proposal is to establish a relative sea-level (RSL) database from the Atlantic Coast of the United States and combine it with data from Atlantic Canada, the United States Gulf Coast and the Caribbean since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Rates of sea-level rise since the LGM provide the fundamental basis for comparison with historical and present-day changes. They provide an essential benchmark against which the RSL rise that has occurred over the last 100-150 years is compared. Moreover, high quality sea-level data reveal spatial and temporal variations in crustal movements since the LGM. Thus, sites from North America (the Atlantic Coast of United States and Canada, and the United States Gulf Coast) and the Caribbean constitute a vital constraint upon the dynamical models of the GIA process. There is an urgent need for a sufficiently accurate model of the GIA process to inform the global data set currently being produced on the time dependence of the gravitational field of the planet by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE).

The specific research objectives of this research are: 1) critical re-assessment of (un)published RSL data since the LGM from the Atlantic Coast of the United States; 2) combine the United States Atlantic Coast data with sea-level reconstructions from Atlantic Canada, the Caribbean and the United States Gulf Coast; 3) isolate the effects of tidal regime change and sediment consolidation from differential crustal movements; 4) validate and refine GIA models; and 5) determine rates of RSL change and differential crustal movements along the Atlantic Coast of Canada and the United States, as well as the Gulf Coast and Caribbean.