Historical literature may constitute a valuable source of information to reconstruct sea-level changes. Here, historical documents and geological records have been combined to reconstruct Caspian sea-level (CSL) changes during the last millennium. In addition to a comprehensive literature review, new data from two short sediment cores were obtained from the south-eastern Caspian coast to identify coastal change driven by water-level changes and to compare the results with other geological and historical findings. The overall results indicate a high-stand during the Little Ice Age, up to -21m (and extra rises due to manmade river avulsion), with a -28m low-stand during the Medieval Climate Anomaly, while presently the CSL stands at -26.5 m. A comparison of the CSL curve with other lake systems and proxy records suggests that the main sea-level oscillations are essentially paced by solar irradiance. Although the major controller of the long-term CSL changes is driven by climatological factors, the seismicity of the basin creates local changes in base level. These local base-level changes should be considered in any CSL reconstruction.
CITATION STYLE
Beni, A. N., Lahijani, H., Harami, R. M., Arpe, K., Leroy, S. A. G., Marriner, N., … Reimer, P. J. (2013). Caspian sea-level changes during the last millennium: Historical and geological evidence from the south Caspian Sea. Climate of the Past, 9(4), 1645–1665. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1645-2013
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