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Science 11 August 1967:
Vol. 157. no. 3789, pp. 687 - 692
DOI: 10.1126/science.157.3789.687
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Articles

Postglacial Change in Sea Level in the Western North Atlantic Ocean

Alfred C. Redfield 1

1 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543

Radioactive carbon determinations of the age of peat indicate that at Bermuda, southern Florida, North Carolina, and Louisiana the relative sea level has risen at approximately the same rate, 2.5 x 10-3 foot per year (0.76 x 10-3 meter per year), during the past 4000 years. It is proposed tentatively that this is the rate of eustatic change in sea level. The rise in sea level along the northeastern coast of the United States has been at a rate much greater than this, indicating local subsidence of the land. Between Cape Cod and northern Virginia, coastal subsidence of 13 feet appears to have occurred between 4000 and 2000 years ago and has continued at a rate of about 1 x 10-3 foot per year since then. On the northeastern coast of Massachusetts, subsidence of 6 feet occurred between 4000 and 3000 years ago; since then sea level has risen at about the eustatic rate. Between 12,000 and 4000 years ago, sea level rose at an average of about 11 x 10-3 foot per year. The part played by local subsidence or temporary departures from the average rate during this period is uncertain.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Deciphering Holocene sea-level history on the U.S. Gulf Coast: A high-resolution record from the Mississippi Delta.
T. E. Tornqvist, J. L. Gonzalez, L. A. Newsom, K. van der Borg, A. F.M. de Jong, and C. W. Kurnik (2004)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 116, 1026-1039
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Records of prehistoric hurricanes on the South Carolina coast based on micropaleontological and sedimentological evidence, with comparison to other Atlantic Coast records.
D.B. Scott, E.S. Collins, P.T. Gayes, and E. Wright (2003)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 115, 1027-1039
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Coral Reef Morphogenesis: A Multidimensional Model.
W. H. Adey and W. H. Adey (1978)
Science 202, 831-837
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Florida Submergence Curve Revised: Its Relation to Coastal Sedimentation Rates.
D. W. Scholl, D. W. Scholl, F. C. Craighead Sr., and M. Stuiver (1969)
Science 163, 562-564
   Abstract »    PDF »
Sea Levels during the Past 35,000 Years.
J. D. Milliman, J. D. Milliman, and K. O. Emery (1968)
Science 162, 1121-1123
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Littoral of the Northeastern United States: Late Quaternary Warping.
W. S. Newman, W. S. Newman, and S. March (1968)
Science 160, 1110-1112
   Abstract »    PDF »
Freshwater Peat on the Continental Shelf.
K. O. Emery, K. O. Emery, R. L. Wigley, A. S. Bartlett, M. Rubin, and E. S. Barghoorn (1967)
Science 158, 1301-1307
   Abstract »    PDF »
Sea Levels 7,000 to 20,000 Years Ago.
K. O. Emery, K. O. Emery, and L. E. Garrison (1967)
Science 157, 684-687
   Abstract »    PDF »


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