Glacial isostatic adjustment and the anomalous tide gauge record of eastern North America

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Abstract
SEA-LEVEL variations, as recorded by the global network of tide gauges, represent a rich data set for studying a wide range of natural and anthropogenic phenomena, such as the sea-level rise induced by possible global warming. For this purpose, long-term sea-level trends must be corrected for the \textquoterightcontaminating\textquoteright effects of continuing glacial isostatic adjustment1-5 (GIA). The numerical correction procedure has, for sites on the east coast of North America, yielded a set of highly anomalous sea-level rates characterized by systematic geographical trends2,4,5. We demonstrate that these trends are a consequence of inadequacies in the previous \textquoterightstandard\textquoteright numerical prediction for GIA. In particular, we find that the well-known trends in the GIA-corrected tide gauge rates are eliminated if the lower-mantle viscosity of the Earth model used in the GIA prediction is increased. This result obviates the need to explain the anomalous trend as a manifestation of Gulf Stream ocean circulation4 or neotectonic processes2.
Year of Publication
1996
Journal
Nature
Volume
379
Number of Pages
331
Date Published
01/1996
URL
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1996Natur.379..331D
DOI
10.1038/379331a0
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