Sea Level, Ice Sheets and Isostasy

Relative sea level, ice sheets and isostasy (past, present and future) – understanding the implications for human populations

The global distribution of future sea-level rise is likely to be complex but understanding the extent and distribution is fundamental to allow human adaptations. Local sea level records from the past can help ‘fingerprint’ which ice sheets contributed to individual episodes of sea-level rise in the past using isostatic models and help us understand the distribution of future sea-level rise. Archeological evidence from the late Holocene in Europe has helped generate datable markers of past local sea level to help understand local sea-level trends in the last several millennia. Equally changes in sea level in the past inform archeologists of the location of past coastal settlements (whether presently inundated or inland) and periods/pathways of early human migration.

Projecting future local sea-level rise is a key goal to facilitate human adaptation to climates change as well as understanding human adaptation in the past (hence furthering cultural understanding).

Aims and objectives

To bring together observational scientists and modelers of past icesheet change with archeologists in order to define observational constraints on future sea-level rise.

To explore, at a workshop, interglacial relative sea levels (Holocene and last interglacial) and sea-level change since the last glacial period in order to understand the processes which caused the ice sheets to vary in these periods. The impact on human populations and the evidence of past settlements will be used to inform the human response to sea-level change in the past as well as to reconstruct past shoreline height.