Department of Earth and Environmental Science

Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction

Sea Level Research Laboratory

Recently, interest in the relationship between climate and sea level change has grown with the realization that human-induced global warming may accelerate the rate of sea-level rise. The aim of the Sea Level Research Laboratory is to increase our understanding of the factors, which have determined changes in sea level in the past in order to enhance our ability to predict changes in the future. We wish to better understand the external (such as sea-level and climate change, earthquakes and tsunamis) and internal mechanisms (including the coastal sedimentary budget) of the sea-level changes we observe and reconstruct.

The Sea Level Research Laboratory seeks to increase the knowledge of geological processes and concepts through correlating studies completed at a wide range of sites throughout the world. Our research plan addresses the following topics:

Quaternary sea-level change and ice-sheet volume

We aim to correlate Quaternary sea-level records with lengthy ocean and ice core records of ice sheet volume to understand better the linkages and driving mechanisms between these depositional environments. We review techniques of litho-, bio- and chronostratigraphic data collection as well as methods of data analysis and hypothesis testing to determine driving mechanisms behind coastal and relative sea-level change, as well as Quaternary land-ocean interactions.

Global to local relative sea-level change during the last 1000 years

We aim to develop high-resolution sea-level records from the last millennia that can be directly compared with historical documentation, and observational data from more recent climate, oceanographic, and geodetic surveys. This work will provide important baseline information against which recent and future sea level and coastal change can be assessed.

Human impact on coastal evolution and sea-level change

We wish to establish, through local, regional and national case studies, the role of humans as drivers of Quaternary coastal change. We will explore the benefits of collaborative research with archaeologists in both the coastal plain and coastal catchments.

The role of earthquakes, tsunamis and storms as driving mechanisms of Quaternary relative sea-level change and coastal evolution:

We aim to quantify estimates of the impacts of earthquakes, tsunamis and storms on fluxes of sediment between ocean, coast and the hinterland. Furthermore I wish to develop and apply techniques of paleoenvironmental reconstruction that can determine rapidly deposited sediment layers or landform changes arising from earthquakes (including patterns of pre-seismic, co-seismic and inter-seismic motions), tsunamis and storms to coastal stratigraphic sequences.