Long-Term Sea Level Change over Geologic Time 1000s of Years and longer

Long-term Change: Investigating Processes of Sea Level Change in Geologic Time

Over time (i.e., multiple years, decades, centuries, etc.) geologists have noticed that it is common to have numerous local sea level changes that share common trajectories (i.e., rising or falling) depending on a number of phenomena that impact both local areas, and global areas. These complicated set of factors will be discussed below. However, it is clear that longer-term sea level change can depend on the time scale of observation, and on the rate of the driving factors responsible for changing the local water level relative to the global water level. It is really important to understand both the time scale of observed change, andthe magnitude of sea level change involved as measured in both a vertical sense and a lateral sense. These are critical factors to quantify if at all possible because it will help differentiate potential driving forces, including climate-based factors versus tectonic-based factors or others. In the following discussion, we will explore these concerns in greater detail.