Another day, another new study has sea levels 2.5 to 3.2 m higher than present from 7000 to 6000 years ago. This one is from the Arabian Sea (Oman).
Embedded mollusc carbonate deposits dated to the Mid-Holocene have been located far inland from today’s shoreline, documenting the meters-higher relative sea levels at that time.
Sea levels were higher because less water was locked up on land as ice throughout the much warmer Mid-Holocene.
Thanks. An interesting paper.
It seems the Mid-Holocene high stand and subsequent receding involved massive sloshing of water {equatorial ocean syphoning} that varied geographically and time-wise.
Apparently, this was not understood initially and led to what appeared to be contradictory and confusing reports. Better now.
I saw beach deposits 10 km or so inland in Abu Dhabi years ago, after reading a geology report that said the Gulf seas were 3-4m higher 3,000 years ago.
Seas higher or land lower? I’m in Iceland right now. The Atlantic “was higher” at the end of the ice age 10,000 years ago. The southern inland cliffs are sea cliffs now a long distance from the sea.
Geologists working in interior basins oil and gas have been long mystified by “the Earth breathing”, presenting repeated shallow to deep cycles over large areas over millions of years.
Either the seas or the continents rise or fall repeatedly even through Cretaceous/Tertiary warm periods. It’s obvious and very strange. Compaction is not the only thing going on.