Oyster Evidence Affirms Sea Levels Were Up To 3.8 Meters Higher Than Today 6000 Years Ago

According to a new paper (Oliver and Terry, 2019) published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, oyster remains have been found encrusted in rock 2.5 to 3.8 meters above the present mean sea level.  This fossilized evidence dates to ~6000 to years ago, a period when the Earth’s surface temperatures were 4-6°C warmer than they are today.

Image(s) Source: Oliver and Terry, 2019

The evidence provided by Oliver and Terry (2019) will be added the to growing list of more than 80 scientific papers indicating sea levels from locations throughout the world were meters higher than they are today just a few thousand years ago.

80+ Papers: Mid-Holocene Sea Levels

Were Multiple Meters Higher Than Today


Oliver and Terry, 2019

Relative sea-level highstands in Thailand since the

Mid-Holocene based on 14C rock oyster chronology

• “~6000 cal yr B.P. old oysters can be found from between 3.8 ± 0.1 m to 2.5 ± 0.1 m above present day mean sea level. … Dead (fossil) oysters were collected from between 1 and 3 m above the centre of the live oyster band in a more sheltered cleft inside the notch. The oldest sample with an age of 5270–4950 cal yr B.P. was collected at an elevation of 3.01 ± 0.1 m above the apex of the notch. The ages decrease with elevation down to 920–710 cal yr B.P. at 1.03 m.”
• “In all the sites, the 14C age of the dead oysters inside the notches increases with increasing elevation above present day MSL. Clearly, relative sea level was 2 to 3 m higher than present between 6000 and 3000 B.P. and has steadily fallen since.”
• “There was a progressive warming from ~13,500 years ago to a peak at 6500 ± 200 years ago followed by a cooling of −2.6 °C to the present day.”
• “Generally, there is a ~1 m wide live oyster band (with modern 14C ages) in the apex of the sea notch that corresponds to the present day MSL. 14C ages of dead oysters are systematically older higher up the sea notch and reach a maximum 14C cal yr B.P. age of 6513–6390 cal yr B.P. at an elevation of 2.5 ± 0.1 m above present day MSL in an exposed site at West Railay Beach. Consequently, relative sea levels must have been higher in the mid Holocene than they are now.”
• “[A]t a more sheltered site inside a bay on Ko Pha Nak, the highest preserved oyster shell is at 3.2 ± 0.1 m above MSL and has a younger 14C calibrated age of 5845–5605 cal yr B.P. Furthermore, oysters from 3.8 ± 0.1 m above present day MSL, encrusted on a stalactite in a cave at West Railay Beach has a 14C calibrated age of 6176–6041 cal yr B.P.”

Image(s) Source: Oliver and Terry, 2019

19 responses to “Oyster Evidence Affirms Sea Levels Were Up To 3.8 Meters Higher Than Today 6000 Years Ago”

  1. Douglas Proctor

    I have personally seen this in Dubai. I am a geologist so I know what offshore beach bars look like even when they are miles from the current Arabian Sea.

    1. Yonason

      I haven’t read all of the above yet, but have they ruled out rebound post ice age melt off?

      Of course that might be a difficult sell for anywhere in the Middle East, which were doubtless not buried under miles of ice. ;o)

    2. TedL

      Douglas Proctor – Can you shed light on what may be a similar situation in the Bay of Campeche. Look at the Google satellite view of the area around Frontera. There is a very interesting complex of elevated beaches, including evidence of the apparent beheading of Rio Usumacinta by Rio Grijalva. I can find no literature on these features. Plainly sea levels have gone down, but I don’t know over what time period and whether there has been uplift sufficient to cause this.

  2. Yonason

    So, it looks like the warmists thought they had a safe bet. All they had to do was tell us what would happen as the world warmed naturally (elevated temps, melting ice, rising seas, etc.), and blame it on CO2, tell us it was our fault and the only way to fix it was to give them total control of us and our money. How would we know the difference? The perfect scam.

    Well, along comes the internet and the free flow of information so that the “marks” (targets of the scam) can get to hear both sides and chose for themselves what makes sense. The perfect antidote.

    I’ll bet Al Gore is kicking himself now for “inventing the internet.” //snarc//

    1. Yonason

      Oh, and they also tell us it’s dangerous and soon will be unstoppable if we don’t act NOW!

      There. Did I forget anything else?

  3. John F. Hultquist

    Looks good, thanks.

  4. Anthony Lucas

    There is a small problem with this post.

    • “In all the sites, the 14C age of the dead oysters inside the notches increases with increasing elevation above present day MSL.

    This is the reverse of the normal stratigraphic progression.
    It’s not possible to deposit younger sediments under an older deposit.
    Something else might be happening at this site.

  5. Lasse

    Litorina sea had left us with a ridge at that level in south of Sweden.
    This part of Sweden has no land lift due to ice decompression (anymore?)
    It was during the same period that the ridge was shaped as a seashore.
    And yes, the water had high salinity indicating contact with the Atlantic.

  6. sasquatch

    An obvious overshoot of oysters, a die-off was necessary.

    The sea level drop due to earthquake activity could raise or lower the shallow areas of a seabed and there you go, oysters above the water line, the shore is gone.

    Oysters are edible, so knock yourself out. All at once, they’re gone. And… they’re gone.

    More than likely, the polar regions contained less ice and more water resulted from a melt of the ice caps.

    Everything always goes Lake Missoula.

    Yesterday was cold, a high temp of minus eleven was on record.

    It is minus 21F at the moment. Too cold to even think.

    Other places it is -30F. Another bad winter, just like all the rest. You gotta have shelter, otherwise, you’ll freeze to death. It’ll be a hard day on the planet. You wonder how the hardy reindeer herders in Siberia can do it. They have to have shelter. Think of the poor reindeer turned into coats and sausage.

    Record lows range in the minus 42F up to minus 25F, most took place from 1915-1920 time period, accuweather is a source for the information.

    People get sick when cold weather sets in, the flu epidemic, pandemic, in 1918 can be attributed somewhat by the inclement winter weather during those years. Blame the Spaniards on that one. No, it was the war, American militaries joined the fight over in Europe, another one, and some of the soldiers were infected with the blasted Spanish flu, it then spread hither and yon.

    “The winter of 1917/1918 is referred to as the Great Frost Winter in Iceland. It was the coldest winter in the region during the twentieth century. It was remarkable for the presence of sea ice in Reykjavik Harbour as well as for the unusually large number of polar bear sightings in northern Iceland. Here we use observations as well as two reanalyses that span the twentieth century to document this event. We show that throughout much of the region, January 1918 was the coldest winter month on record. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) attained one of its most negative values during January 1918 and the westward shift in its northern centre of action allowed cold Arctic and Greenlandic air to penetrate south towards Iceland.”

    https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/qj.2939

    Winter weather at its best a century ago.

    The record lows I see from the accuweather weather data seem to/do coincide with what was observed then in Iceland.

    Colder than hell out there right now, dangerous weather.

    Must have a wobble and swing of a hundred year duration.

    All of the ingredients in beer contain all of the nutrients to keep you alive. More CO2 in the atmosphere is needed to get that Barley at optimum growth potential.

    Laughter is the best medicine.

  7. Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #347 | Watts Up With That?
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