Possible Types of Coastal Evolution Associated with the Expected Rise of the World's Sea Level Caused by the "Greenhouse Effect"

Authors

  • Yuri S. Dolotov

Keywords:

Sea-level rise, sedimentation, coastal change

Abstract

The determination of possible coastal depositional evolutionary types under conditions of a predicted sea-level rise caused by the "greenhouse effect" can he based on the study of the data of the irregular Holocene transgression. In general, different rates of sea-level rise cause dissimilar intensities of erosional processes, various rates of fluvial sediment discharge, dissimilar intensities of the rearrangement of the bottom profile, and thus differences in the coastal sediment budget. On shallow-water sea coasts, there are three types of coastal evolution dependent on rate of sea-level rise and sediment availability: (1) the inundation and preservation of the depositional form; (2) displacement of the depositional form accompanied by retreat of its margin; and (3) long-term continuous shoreline progradation. On the deep-sea coast, two types of depositional evolutionary forms occur: (1) interrupted accretion and the tendency to erosion and to reduction of the dimensions of the form; and (2) continuous sediment accretion and the tendency to increase the dimensions of the form.

 

 

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Published

1992-07-22