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Late Quaternary Sea-Level Correlation and Applications: Walter S. Newman Memorial Volume PDF

231 Pages·1989·21.46 MB·English
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Late Quaternary Sea-Level Correlation and Applications NATO ASI Series Advanced Science Institutes Series A Series presenting the results of activities sponsored by the NA TO Science Committee, which aims at the dissemination of advanced scientific and technological knowledge, with a view to strengthening links between scientific communities. The Series is published by an international board of publishers in conjunction with the NATO Scientific Affairs Division A Life Sciences Plenum Publishing Corporation B Physics London and New York C Mathematical Kluwer Academic Publishers and Physical Sciences Dordrecht, Boston and London o Behavioural and Social Sciences E Applied Sciences F Computer and Systems Sciences Springer-Verlag G Ecological Sciences Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, H Cell Biology Paris and Tokyo Series C: Mathematical and Physical Sciences - Vol. 256 Late Quaternary Sea-Level Correlation and Applications Walter S. Newman Memorial Volume edited by D. B. Scott Centre for Marine Geology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada P.A. Pirazzoli INTERGEO - CNRS, Paris, France and C.A. Honig Centre for Marine Geology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht / Boston / London Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Late Quaternary Sea-Level Correlation and Applications Halifax, Canada 19-30 July 1987 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data NATO Advanced Study Institute (1987 : Halifax, N.S.> Late Ouaternary sea-level correlation and applications proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Halifax, Canada, 19-30 July 1987 I edited by D.B. Scott, P.A. Pirazzoli, C.A. Honig. p. cm. -- (NATO ASI series. Series C, Mathematical and physical sciences; vol. 256> "Walter S. Newman me.ori~l volume." Inc 1u des index. 1. Sea level--Congresses. 2. Geology. Stratigraphic--Ouaternary- -Congresses. I. Scott, D. 6. II. Pirazzoli. P. A. (Paoio A.> III. Honig, C. A. IV. Newman. Walter S., 1927- V. Title. VI. Series: NATO ASI series. Series C. Mathematical and physical sciences; no. 256. GC89.N38 1987 551.7' 9--dc 19 88-29425 CIP ISBN-13: 978-94-010-6880-2 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-0873-4 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-0873-4 Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers incorporates the publishing programmes of D. Reidel, Martinus Nijhoff, Dr W. Junk, and MTP Press. Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands. All Rights Reserved © 1989 by Kluwer Academic Publishers. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface vii Walter S. Newman (1927-1987) An Appreciation ix Holocene sea-level changes and crustal movements in the North Sea region : an experiment with regional eustasy (Ian Shennan) Sea-level changes in the Iberian peninsula during the last 200,000 years (C. Zazo & J.L. Goy) 27 Sea-level changes in the Netherlands during the last 6500 years: basal peat vs. coastal barrier data (Orson van de P1assche & Thomas B. Roep) 41 Response of sandy beaches to sea-level rise (Stephen P. Leatherman) 57 A late Pleistocene low sea-level stand of the southeast Canadian offshore (Gordon B.J. Fader) 71 Holocene relative sea-level changes and Quaternary glacial events on a continental shelf edge: Sable Island Bank (D.B. Scott, R. Boyd, M. Douma, F.S. Medio1i, S. Yuill, E. Leavitt & C.F.M. Lewis) 105 Geodynamique des 1ignes de rivage Quaternaires du continent Africain et applications (Pierre Giresse) 121 Recent sea-level changes in the North Atlantic (P.A. Pirazzo1i) 153 Late Quaternary shorelines in India (Helmut Bruckner) 169 Archaeology and sea-level change in the southwestern Pacific: no simple story (A.J. Smith) 195 Some considerations of the compilation of Late Quaternary sea level curves: a North American perspective (W.S. Newman, R.R. Pardi & R.W. Fairbridge) 207 List of Reviewers 229 PREFACE A NATO Advanced Study Institute, "Late Quaternary Sea-level Correlation and Applications", was held together with the Final Meeting of IGCP Project 200 in Halifax, Canada, 19-30 July 1987. This Volume is a collection of the NATO Keynote Papers presented at this meeting. The authors of these papers are from seven of the NATO countries - two each from France, the U. K., Canada, and the U. S . A. , and one each from Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. With these authors, we are able to assemble work from virtually all of the world's oceans with several different approaches. The Volume is dedicated to Walter S. Newman, one of the best known and best liked sea-level workers of our time who died shortly before this Conference. This Volume contains one of his last contributions and all contributors to this Volume are honoured to be in the company of Walter's last work. There are several papers from North Atlantic countries dealing with Holocene sea level in a variety of ways. Shennan summarizes data from the U.K. and makes a preliminary effort to place the data in the context of a model. Zazo & Goy present new data from the coast of Spain and place it in a stratigraphical context. Van de P1assche re- assesses previous data and adds new data to the very sea-level sensitive Dutch coast. Leatherman uses sea-level information in the Chesapeake Region to assess coastal management problems. Both Fader and Scott et a1. present data from the Scotian Shelf of Eastern Canada - Fader uses regional seismic correlations to suggest a 115 m lowering of sea-level; Scott et a1. use new data from Sable Island to suggest sea level was no more than 80 m below present at 15 kybp. Giresse presents Holocene and Pleistocene data on the entire African coast and suggests mechanisms to explain differences. Pirazzo1i presents world- wide tidal gauge data suggesting that there is no global sea-level trend in the last 50-100 years. Bruckner presents Holocene sea-level data from the Indian coastline, an area seldom reported on in the English literature. Smith presents a paper showing how archaeologists can use sea-level data in the Pacific to speculate movements of early man. Finally, in a paper typical of Walter S. Newman, Newman et a1. discuss their huge data bank of C-14 points and how it might be used. We would like to thank all the financial contributors to this Volume, most notably NATO Scientific Affairs Division who made this combined Symposium and Field Trip and, ultimately this Volume, possible. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada provided a special conference grant and financial support also came from IGCP Project 200 and the Canadian National Committee for IGCP. Dalhousie University and the Centre for Marine Geology provided accommodations and personnel. Reviewers for the papers are listed at the end of the Volume. D.B. Scott, C.A. Honig, P.A. Pirazzo1i. June 1988. vii WALTER S. NEWMAN (1927-1987) ftN APPRECIATION This VO'lume is very apprO'priately dedicated to' the memO'ry O'f O'ne of O'ur mO'st devO'ted cO'astal wO'rkers and a belO'ved teacher ~t Queens CO'llege in the City University O'f New YO'rk. He travelled widely, often to' cO'ngresses O'f the InternatiO'nal UniO'n fO'r Quaternary Research O'r to' field meetings O'f the INQUA ShO'relines CO'mmissiO'n, O'r in cO'nnectiO'n with the IGCP sea-level prO'jects (61 and 200), O'r with the Friends O'f the PleistO'cene. He had, indeed, dear friends everywhere: frO'm hO'me in New YO'rk City to' Japan, the USSR, Israel, O'r Australia. Walter was a real New YO'rker, bO'rn and bred. His B.A. was frO'm BrO'O'klyn CO'llege (1950), his M.A. frO'm Syracuse (1959), his Ph.D. frO'm N.Y.U. (1960). AlO'ng the way, he gained experience with the U.S. CO'ast Guard & GeO'detic Survey in their Lake Mead seismic wO'rk; with the U.S. Army CO'rps O'f Engineers in several rO'les (1951-56) that included drilling in Bermuda that gO't him started O'n sea-level studies; and with several engineering geO'lO'gical cO'mpanies. In 1959- 60, he was a research assistant to' the late Maurice Ewing at the LamO'nt-DO'herty ObservatO'ry O'f CO'lumbia University. Subsequently, he O'ften spent his summers in Quaternary mapping in New England fO'r the U.S. GeO'lO'gical Survey. ix x Walter was a natural, born teacher. He loved arguments with heated discussions and was not in the least worried about changing his mind if the evidence tilted that way. He began in 1960 as a lecturer at Queens College, moving up in steps to become chairman and full professor (1978-87). In the last few years he had also become a senior research associate at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA), where he learned about some of the mysteries of computers. Jointly, with the writer, Walter had collected a data bank of all the dated samples of coastal significance from the published volumes of Radiocarbon. These he collated on the IBM-PC and learned how to plot them geographically and how to arrange the data in various ways that helped us ~ppreciate some of the problems involved, notably the tide range and neotectonic variables. Many years earlier we had also collaborated in plotting the geodetic relevelling data on a profile from New York City up to the Canadian border and in constructing glacioisostatic recovery maps of the northeastern U. S. As a result we both became convinced about the important role of neotectonics in modulating the picture of mean sea level as perceived from both tide-gauge data and Holocene stratigraphy. His computer- modelling of postulated geoid deformation will stand as the first pioneer experiments in this field that were based on real (as oppossed to hypothetical) evidence: "paleogeodesy" is now among his well- deserved claims to fame. One of Walter's last projects was to help organize the "birthday symposium" and edit the resultant book, "Climate: History, Peridocity, and Predictability" (edited by Rampino, Sanders, Newman and Konigsson, 1987). Through his life he was wonderfully supported by his wife, Marian, and was understandably proud of his two fine daughters. We all miss him very much. Rhodes W. Fairbridge July 1988. HOLOCENE SEA-LEVEL CHANGES AND CRUSTAL MOVEMENTS IN THE NORTH SEA REGION : AN EXPERIMENT WITH REGIONAL EUSTASY Ian Shennan Department of Geography University of Durham Durham DH1 3LE United Kingdom ABSTRACT. Eighteen relative sea-level curves from the North Sea region are used to test the concept of regional eustasy. Net uplift/subsidence curves for each location are derived but no single baseline, regional eustatic. curve will account for all the residuals identified. The simplest conclusion is that dynamic sea-level factors have not remained constant on the scale of the North Sea during the Holocene. 1. INTRODUCTION The coastal areas bordering the North Sea have been systematically studied for over 100 years to identify the factors of local and regional significance controlling shoreline processes during the Holocene. The sea-level indicators range from uplifted shoreline sequences and lake basin sediments in Scandinavia and Scotland to thick intercalated sequences of marine, brackish, freshwater and semi-terrestrial sediments in the estuaries bordering the southern North Sea. The collection of empirical data has been undertaken by a wide range of individuals and groups from numerous universities, state and federal survey and research institutions. providing the potential of a large database, perhaps unequalled for any other area of the world of comparable size. Synthesis of the data at the regional scale has hitherto been largely precluded by the volume and quality of the data. This paper attempts to remidy the situation and adopts a regional approach. It is a modified update of a longer contribution published elsewhere (Shennan 1987a) . Extensive data gathering is typical of a scientific discipline during its early stages of development with explanation via model building and hypothesis testing coming later. Many sea-level studies in Europe have remained D. B. Scott et ai. (eds.),Late Quaternary Sea-Level Correlation and Applications, 1-25. © 1989 by Kiuwer Academic Publishers. 2 essentially inductive in their approach with little attempt to put together knowledge of the separately known events, ultimately to lead to theory construction and thence to explanation (Tooley 1987). However the increase. particularly during the period of the two IGCP sea-level projects. 61 and 200. in the number of reliable radiocarbon dates on Holocene marine episodes. together with more standardised methods of data collection. analysis and classification enable alternative routes to explanation in sea-level studies to be attempted (Shennan 1983). The aim in this paper is not to provide a summary of research papers but to investigate some of the methods that can be applied in synthesising the available data. Similar methods have been discussed elsewhere (Shennan 1987a). To summarise published data. judgements must be made using a database poorer than that available to the original research worker. for example full stratigraphic details. sampling problems and laboratory analyses are rarely accessible. Even if the required details were published it would be very difficult to synthesise all the data on a regional scale given the resources currently available to individual research workers. either in isolation or within the sphere of cooperation of international projects such as IGCP 61 and 200. The explosion of detailed data as a result of interdisciplinary research. whilst making the data more reliable, particularly in helping to describe local scale changes. makes the task of synthesis increasingly difficult. The problem to be addressed is how best to utilise data which hass been collected at one temporal and spatial scale. e.g. for local archaeological investigations or geological surveys. to answer questions related to processes effective at a different resolution or regional scale. Marner (e.g. 1976a. 1987) has introduced the concept of regional eustasy following observations and arguments about the temporal and spatial variability of the oceanic geoid. A new definition of the term eustasy has been proposed (Marner 1987 p.338). which now covers tectono-eustasy. glacial-eustasy. geoidal eustasy and dynamic sea-level changes. Each of these will be of greater or lesser significance over different temporal and spatial scales. Peltier (e.g. 1982. 1985) employs a different approach. using a spherical earth model reconstructions of ice sheet retreat to provide numerical predictions of relative sea-level change for any location. This approach is not considered in detail in this paper since work is only now underway to compare the numerical predictions for sites in the United Kingdom with the empir~cal relative sea-level data. Marner (1980) has suggested that the North Sea region can be viewed as an immense sea level laboratory in which various approaches to isolating the different eustatic and

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