Glacial Rebound and Relative Sea Levels in Europe from Tide-gauge Records

239 Emery, K.O. and Aubrey, D.G., 1985. Glacial rebound and relative sea levels in Europe from tide-gauge records. Tectonophysics, 120: 239-255. Relative sea levels recorded by tide gauges during the past century in northern Europe are dominated by isostatic readjustment of the land following the latest deglaciation of Scandinavia and Scotland. Maximum relative uplift of the land is centered near the northern Gulf of Bothnia (at a rate of 6-7 mmjyr), with a smaller secondary maximum over Scotland (also at a rate of 6-7 mmjyr). Although there probably is a relaxing peripheral bulge surrounding the regions of maximum uplift, such a former bulge is poorly defined by coastal tide gauges; in the North Sea evidence for sinking of a former peripheral bulge of glacial origin is complicated by post-Carboniferous basin deepening with sediment loading and possible rejuvenation associated with glaciation. Other data (gravity, radiocarbon, geomorphology) support the interpretation that glacial isostasy controls the structure of relative sea-level change. Included in this pattern of relative rise of land is a eustatic signal that biases the estimates of glacial rebound. Such a e11static signal could not be isolated from the isostatic signal using the present data, but glacial isostasy clearly is a major control for relative sea levels of the region. Absence of significant higher frequency (2-50 yr) cycles in mean annual sea levels of northern Europe reflects the complex hydrologic/oceanographic forces to which sea levels must respond. Whereas other coastal regions show significant higher frequency peaks in the energy spectra of relative sea levels, the many marginal seas in northern Europe preclude a clear relation between hydrologic/oceanographic forcing and relative sea levels, although this relation must exist on a more local scale.