DEP Grant Final Report

• Main Authors: Alissa Stanley, Kenneth G. Miller, Peter J. Sugarman
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Cape May; Rainbow Island; Ice Sheet; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.422.4945; http://www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/climate/holocene.pdf

The study shows that the preanthropogenic sea-level rise in New Jersey was 2 mm/y, suggesting that the anthropogenically induced rise in global sea level due to global warming was ~1 mm/yr from 1900-1995. Thus, human-induced effects on sea-level in New Jersey are 1-2 mm/y which is up to one-half of the total observed rate of rise. The history of pre-anthropogenic Holocene global sea level has not been well described. We provide Holocene sea-level estimates for five new boreholes on the New Jersey (NJ) coast (Rainbow Island, Great Bay I, Great Bay II, Cape May, and Island Beach). We analyzed facies, radiocarbon dated marsh deposits, and derived a sea-level record by compiling new and previously published NJ data. Our sea-level record shows a constant rise of ~2 mm/yr from ~7000 years ago to the present. This contrasts sharply with previous NJ estimates that suggested a slowing in rise since 2000 years ago rather than a constant rate of rise. Comparison with other NJ locations suggests surprising uniformity in the rate of rise amongst sites as far flung as Cape May and Cheesequake (200 km apart), suggesting a far-field response to the Laurentide ice sheet. The “Barbados/western North Atlantic reef sea-level ” record shows a major decrease in the rate of rise from 12