On Postglacial Sea Level

Summary An exact method is presented for calculating the changes in sea level that occur when ice and water masses are rearranged on the surface of elastic and viscoelastic non-rotating Earth models. The method is used to calculate the instantaneous elastic and delayed vi scoelastic sea level changes following the partial melting of late Quaternary ice sheets. We find that there can be large errors in the usual assumption that changes in sea level are uniform over the ocean basins. If a quantity of ice equivalent to a uniform 100-m rise in sea level melts from the Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets, then in the South Pacific the instantaneous rise in sea level can be as large as 120m. In the North…