Influence of glacial isostatic adjustment upon current sea level variations in the Mediterranean

• Published in: Tectonophysics
• Main Authors: STOCCHI P, SPADA, GIORGIO
• Other Authors: Stocchi, P, Spada, Giorgio
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Author keywords glacial isostatic adjustment; Mediterranean; sea level variations Indexed keywords Anthropogenic effect; Current rate; Deglaciation; glacial isostatic adjustment; Ice sheet; Isostatic effect; Loading effect; Local scale; Long wavelength; Mantle rheology; Melt water; Parameter space; Pleistocene; Sea level rise; sea level variation; Solid earth; Spatiotemporal distribution; Tectonic activity; Tide gauge; Timeserie; Upper and lower bounds Engineering controlled terms: Control theory; Elasticity; Glacier; Plasticity; Rheology; Sea level; Tectonic; Viscosity Engineering main heading: Glacial geology GEOBASE Subject Index: coastal zone; geoid; glacioisostasy; GPS; mantle proce; parameterization; sea level change; spatiotemporal analysi; time series analysis Regional Index: Mediterranean Sea; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11576/2302460; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2009.01.003; http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040195109000146

Present-day sea level variations in the Mediterranean depend on various factors, including recent climatic forcing, tectonic activity, anthropogenic effects, and glacio-isostatic adjustment. The latter is governed by mantle rheology and the spatio–temporal distribution of the late-Pleistocene ice sheets and it is expected to produce a long-wavelength pattern of sea level variations across the Mediterranean, mostly determined by the response of the solid earth and of the geoid to loading effects of melt water since the end of deglaciation. Modeling glacio-isostatic effects in this region is necessary for a correct interpretation of tide gauge and GPS time-series, and thereby to constrain both the present-day climate-related sea level rise and regional or local geological, tectonic and human-driven displacements. By an exhaustive exploration of the parameter space of mantle rheology and ice sheet chronologies, in this work we outline upper and lower bounds on the current rate of sea level variation associated with glacial isostatic adjustment in the Mediterranean. This may contribute to a full assessment of coastal vulnerability by sea level rise on a regional and local scale.