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Science 23 January 1998:
Vol. 279. no. 5350, pp. 534 - 537
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5350.534
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Reports

True Polar Wander as a Mechanism for Second-Order Sea-Level Variations

Jon E. Mound, * Jerry X. Mitrovica

Long-term wander of the rotation pole can be a significant contributor to second-order (time scales of ~100 million years) sea-level variations. Numerical predictions based on realistic viscoelastic Earth models and paleomagnetically constrained polar motion yield global-scale, differential sea-level trends that can be as large as ~200 meters. From the results presented here, it is argued that the well-documented, second-order, Cretaceous-Tertiary sea-level cycle should be reinterpreted as some combination of a eustatic and a regionally varying rotational signal.

Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 Saint George Street, Toronto, M5S 1A7, Canada.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Combined paleomagnetic, isotopic, and stratigraphic evidence for true polar wander from the Neoproterozoic Akademikerbreen Group, Svalbard, Norway.
A. C. Maloof, G. P. Halverson, J. L. Kirschvink, D. P. Schrag, B. P. Weiss, and P. F. Hoffman (2006)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 118, 1099-1124
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Quantifying paleogeography using biogeography: a test case for the Ordovician and Silurian of Avalonia based on brachiopods and trilobites.
(2002)
Paleobiology 28, 343-363


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