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Testing the mid-Holocene relative sea-level highstand hypothesis in North Wales, UK

Rushby, Greg T, Richards, Geoff T, Gehrels, W Roland, Anderson, William P, Bateman, Mark D and Blake, William H 2019. Testing the mid-Holocene relative sea-level highstand hypothesis in North Wales, UK. Holocene 29 (9) , pp. 1491-1502. 10.1177/0959683619854513

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Abstract

Accurate Holocene relative sea-level curves are vital for modelling future sea-level changes, particularly in regions where relative sea-level changes are dominated by isostatically induced vertical land movements. In North Wales, various glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models predict a mid-Holocene relative sea-level highstand between 4 and 6 ka, which is unsubstantiated by any geological sea-level data but affects the ability of geophysical models to model accurately past and future sea levels. Here, we use a newly developed foraminifera-based sea-level transfer function to produce a 3300-year-long late-Holocene relative sea-level reconstruction from a salt marsh in the Malltraeth estuary on the south Anglesey coast in North Wales. This is the longest continuous late-Holocene relative sea-level reconstruction in Northwest Europe. We combine this record with two new late-Holocene sea-level index points (SLIPs) obtained from a freshwater marsh at Rhoscolyn, Anglesey, and with previously published regional SLIPs, to produce a relative sea-level record for North Wales that spans from ca. 13,000 BP to the present. This record leaves no room for a mid-Holocene relative sea-level highstand in the region. We conclude that GIA models that include a mid-Holocene sea-level highstand for North Wales need revision before they are used in the modelling of past and future relative sea-level changes around the British Isles.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Earth and Environmental Sciences
Publisher: SAGE Publications (UK and US)
ISSN: 0959-6836
Last Modified: 18 Aug 2020 11:30
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/134247

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