"Glacial Rebound: 10,000-Year Study of Strata Compaction and Sea-Level Rise on English Coast"

The Link

This is cool. It talks about studying the after effect of a UK submerged by ice and water and undoubtedly can and will shed light on the potential impacts of rising sea levels, comparisons to previous inundations and help to chart where we, or the UK are headed under current trends.

It is also cool in that it can help to formulate the best strategies for protecting wet-lands and building a good understanding of the disappearance of wet lands.

Environmental scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and Durham University have employed a novel combination of geological and model reconstructions of wetland environments during a 10,000-year period to address spatial variations in sea-level history and provide quantitative estimates of subsidence along the east coast of England.

The findings indicate that glacial rebound -- the rise or fall of land masses that were depressed by the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period -- explains differences in relative sea levels along the English coast.

Using data from sediment cores up to 20 meters deep, researchers found that sediment compaction explained the variations in sea-level observations at every study area, revealing striking correlations to the thickness of overlying sediment.

"Rising sea levels threaten to permanently submerge wetland environments," said Benjamin P. Horton, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at Penn. "Management decisions regarding the best way to intervene to protect these environments depend upon empirically informed, scientific data for each of the processes operating in wetland systems, including sediment compaction. This is a high-profile topic, which is subject to a great deal of controversy, especially concerning the on-going discussions of why deltas around the world are losing wetlands at a particularly alarming rate."

[edit on 13-12-2009 by Animal]

reply to post by Animal

The Great Lakes region is experiencing glacial rebound as well. One reason the lake system is losing water is because the area is rebounding at an increasing rate as water levels decrease - less weight over the bedrock.

Just another factor to be considered in the many delta and wetlands regions that are experiencing subsidence or rebound.

jw