Page 1 - Vacchi_Marriner

Page 1 - Vacchi_Marriner_2016

P. 1

Earth-Science Reviews 155 (2016) 172–197

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Earth-Science Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/earscirev

Multiproxy assessment of Holocene relative sea-level changes in the
western Mediterranean: Sea-level variability and improvements in the
deﬁnition of the isostatic signal

c
b
a
a
Matteo Vacchi , Nick Marriner , Christophe Morhange ,GiorgioSpada ,
d
Alessandro Fontana , Alessio Rovere e
a
Aix-Marseille Université, CEREGE CNRS-IRD UMR 34, Europole de l’Arbois BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence, Cedex 4, France
b CNRS, Chrono-Environnement UMR 6249, Université de Franche-Comté, UFR ST, 16 route de Gray, 25030 Besançon, France
c
Università degli Studi di Urbino, Dipartimento di Scienze Pure ed Applicate (DiSPeA), Via Santa Chiara 27, Urbino, Italy
d
Università degli Studi di Padova, Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Via Gradenigo 6, Padova, Italy
e
University of Bremen, Marum, ZMT, Bremen, Germany
article i nfo abstract
Article history: A review of 917 relative sea-level (RSL) data-points has resulted in the ﬁrst quality-controlled database
Received 10 July 2015 constraining the Holocene sea-level histories of the western Mediterranean Sea (Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia,
Received in revised form 3 February 2016
Croatia, Malta and Tunisia). We reviewed and standardized the geological RSL data-points using a new multi-
Accepted 12 February 2016 proxy methodology based on: (1) modern taxa assemblages in Mediterranean lagoons and marshes;
Available online 22 February 2016
(2) beachrock characteristics (cement fabric and chemistry, sedimentary structures); and (3) the modern distri-
bution of Mediterranean ﬁxed biological indicators. These RSL data-points were coupled with the large number of
Keywords:
archaeological RSL indicators available for the western Mediterranean. We assessed the spatial variability of RSL
Mediterranean Sea
Holocene histories for 22 regions and compared these with the ICE-5G (VM2) GIA model. In the western Mediterranean,
Sea-level database RSL rose continuously for the whole Holocene with a sudden slowdown at ~7.5 ka BP and a further deceleration
Isostatic adjustment during the last ~4.0 ka BP, after which time observed RSL changes are mainly related to variability in isostatic ad-
Sea-level proxy justment. The sole exception is southern Tunisia, where data show evidence of a mid-Holocene high-stand com-
patible with the isostatic impacts of the melting history of the remote Antarctic ice sheet.
Our results indicate that late-Holocene sea-level rise was signiﬁcantly slower than the current one. First estimates
of GIA contribution indicate that, at least in the northwestern sector, it accounts at least for the 25–30% of the on-
going sea-level rise recorded by Mediterranean tidal gauges. Such contribution is less constrained at lower lati-
tudes due to the lower quality of the late Holocene index points. Future applications of spatio-temporal
statistical techniques are required to better quantify the gradient of the isostatic contribution and to provide im-
proved context for the assessment of 20th century acceleration of Mediterranean sea-level rise.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Contents
1. Introduction ................................... ........................... 173
2. Study area .................................... ........................... 174
2.1. Original source of the data.......................... ........................... 174
2.2. Database subdivision ............................ ........................... 176
3. Compilation of the RSL database .......................... ........................... 177
3.1. Indicators of former RSL ........................... ........................... 177
3.1.1. Fixed biological index points .................... ........................... 177
3.1.2. Marsh and lagoonal index points................... ........................... 177
3.1.3. Beachrock index points ....................... ........................... 180
3.2. Sea-level limiting points........................... ........................... 180
3.3. Archeological index and limiting points .................... ........................... 180
3.4. Altitude of former sea-level ......................... ........................... 180
3.5. Age of sea-level indicators .......................... ........................... 181
3.6. Example of the production of a lagoonal index point from Malta ........ ........................... 181

E-mail address: vacchi@cerege.fr (M. Vacchi).

1 2 3 4 5 6