Westmorland Geological Society -
It’s All Relative: The Ups, Downs, Tilting, and Rebounds of Ancient Sea Level
by Prof. Pete Burgess, University of Liverpool
Sea level sounds like a simple concept, and in some respects it is; we can go to the beach and observe sea level right there. However, sea level is not constant, it varies through time, especially over geological time. Like many things, we can only measure sea-level change relative to something else, and there is more than one datum we can use. Perhaps most importantly, as we go forward into the Anthropocene human influence is increasingly dominant on Earth-surface processes, sea-level rise is likely to increase, with potentially grave consequences for many people. Understanding what sea-level change is, how we measure it, and how we can learn more about it from deep-time geology is an important topic. This presentation will discuss how to define different types of sea-level change, explain the various mechanisms of sea-level change and the time scales they operate on, discuss the evidence for and methods to determine sea-level history over geological time, and talk about what we can learn about likely future sea level changes from that deep-time history.
This talk will be delivered via ZOOM. Joining instructions will be circulated to members of the Westmorland Geology Society prior to the lecture. Non-members are welcome to attend and should email westmorlandgeolsoc@gmail.com to register.