Figure 11.5: Examples of
observed relative sea level change (with error bars, right-hand side) and model
predictions for four different locations. The model predictions (left-hand side)
are for the glacio-hydro-eustatic contributions to the total change (solid line,
right hand side). (a) Angermann River, Sweden, near the centre of the former ice
sheet over Scandinavia. The principal contribution to the sea level change is
the crustal rebound from the ice unloading (curve marked ice, left-hand side)
and from the change in ocean volume due to the melting of all Late Pleistocene
ice sheets (curve marked esl). The combined predicted effect, including a small
water loading term (not shown), is shown by the solid line (right-hand side),
together with the observed values. (b) A location near Stirling, Scotland. Here
the ice and esl contributions are of comparable magnitude but opposite sign (left-hand
side) such that the rate of change of the total contribution changes sign (right-hand
side). This result is typical for locations near former ice margins or from near
the centres of small ice sheets. (c) The south of England where the isostatic
contributions from the water (curve marked water) and ice loads are of similar
amplitude but opposite sign. The dominant contribution to sea level change is
now the eustatic contribution. This behaviour is characteristic of localities
that lie well beyond the ice margins where a peripheral bulge created by the ice
load is subsiding as mantle material flows towards the region formerly beneath
the ice. (d) A location in Australia where the melt-water load is the dominant
cause of isostatic adjustment. Here sea level has been falling for the past 6,000
years. This result is characteristic of continental margin sites far from the
former areas of glaciation. (From Lambeck, 1996.)
