“This is big news… for scientists who use the coastline to predict future sea-level rise. It’s also a cautionary tale for those who rely almost exclusively on cycles of glacial advance and retreat to study sea-level changes.”
From a Syracuse University media release:
From Virginia to Florida, there is a prehistoric shoreline that, in some parts, rests more than 280 feet above modern sea level. The shoreline was carved by waves more than 3 million years ago—possible evidence of a once higher sea level, triggered by ice-sheet melting. But new findings by a team of researchers, including Robert Moucha, assistant professor of Earth Sciences in The College of Arts and Sciences, reveal that the shoreline has been uplifted by more than 210 feet, meaning less ice melted than expected.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out. For mantle activity to account for sea level changes as suggested by Moucha et al, mantle influences would have to take place on very short time scales. This is readily apparent since sea levels have changed dozens of times over the past 3 million years, usually very rapidly (less than 10000 years), and in both directions.
Last report I read the Himalayan mountain K-2 is still growing higher each year. some Island are sinking . . some islands are being formed by volcanic and will soon break through the surface. Yes all these natural actions could raise or lower the sea level. The grand canyon walls show they were under water many times. Observation does not explain or even indicate global changes.
I hope we’ll now see more articles on the role of the mantle in climate — not only the physical configuration of the crust-mantle interface but the various mechanisms for energy flow from the super hot mantle through the crust into the sea floor. The relatively thiner crust under most of the ocean may make hydrothermal venting and related phenomena more important than the “climate community” has yet acknowledged. The fact that there has never been a decent survey of heat flows into the sea floor does not justify assuming that they are negligible!