Deformation in response to landscape evolution during glacial cycles on the U.S. Atlantic passive margin

Elevations of Pleistocene highstand formations that lie across the South Carolina and northern Georgia coastal plain lie well above those of reconstructed past sea levels. This discrepancy has been attributed to some combination of tectonics, glacial isostatic adjustment, and/or deviations in estima...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Main Authors: Ruetenik, Gregory, Moucha, Robert, de Boer, Bas
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/3b87bdf6-baf7-4f34-aad2-f34a9faeadca
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115759
http://hdl.handle.net/1871.1/3b87bdf6-baf7-4f34-aad2-f34a9faeadca
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071648323&partnerID=8YFLogxK
http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85071648323&partnerID=8YFLogxK
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X19304510
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Summary:Elevations of Pleistocene highstand formations that lie across the South Carolina and northern Georgia coastal plain lie well above those of reconstructed past sea levels. This discrepancy has been attributed to some combination of tectonics, glacial isostatic adjustment, and/or deviations in estimated ocean volumes derived from the marine δ 18 O record. To reconcile these anomalous elevations, we combine a landscape evolution model with models of coupled ice sheet, sea level and solid Earth deformation along the southern U.S. Atlantic passive margin to estimate erosion, deposition and corresponding isostatic response since Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 (∼410 ka). We find that along-shore changes in modeled paleo-shoreline elevations are similar to measured elevations along 100s of kilometers. Up to 10 m of shoreline uplift since MIS 11 may be attributed to isostatic feedback in response to sediment redistribution.