Relative sea-level (RSL) cycle

Abstract

The relative sea-level changes periodically between regression and transgression of the sea and acts on different – hierarchically superimposed – temporal and spatial scales. Eustasy and tectonic (isostatic) vertical crustal movements are the main components of relative sea-level records reconstructed for the Phanerozoic by indirect geological methods. The younger geological history, in particular the glacio-isostatic adjustment’s influence on coastline change, can be reconstructed by models describing the effect of loading and unloading of continental ice shields. The empirical data have to be analyzed very carefully in order to separate vertical crustal movements from the eustatic (climatically controlled) components.