Evidence for a rapid sea-level rise 7600 yr ago

Dating the transgression and subsequent regression in marginal basins of the southeastern Swedish Baltic Sea provides a new perspective of global ice-volume changes and the isostatic adjustment of the mantle after the retreat of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet. Yu et al. attribute a rapid local sea-level rise of roughly 4.5 meters ca. 7600 calibrated (cal) years before present to a sudden increase in ocean mass, most likely caused by the final decay of the Labrador sector of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. This finding suggests that land-based ice sheets can melt relatively quickly, and thus more attention should be given to the Greenland Ice Sheet when predicting future sea level, particularly within the context of global warming.

GSA Journals

Eurekalert