Minimal late Holocene sea level rise in the Chukchi Sea: arctic insensitivity to global change?

doi:10.1016/S0921-8181(01)00146-1

Global and Planetary Change

Volume 32, Issue 1, December 2001, Pages 13-23

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8181(01)00146-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

Long-term estimates of sea level rise are essential for planning responses to anthropogenic global change. The tectonically stable, unglaciated eastern Chukchi Sea coast has numerous depositional environments for extracting long-term records in the absence of tide gauge data. Radiocarbon ages (n=27) on paleo-marsh beds along several Seward Peninsula lagoons allows the reconstruction of sea level over the last 6000 years in northwest Alaska and indicate a modest sea level rise, ∼1.5 m, or 0.27 mm year⁻¹. Neoglacial (1600–200 cal BC) storm deposits from Kotzebue Sound to Barrow are 1–1.5 m below modern storm surge elevations, supporting the inference of a lower eustatic sea level. Our data-constrained sea level curve establishes that the Chukchi Sea responds at a considerably slower rate than other regions of the world, supporting recent models of isostatic response for the arctic.

Introduction

Global change modelers propose catastrophic scenarios for 21st century sea level rise associated with anthropogenic burning of fossil fuels Warrick and Oerlemans, 1990, Wigley and Raper, 1992, Nichols and Leatherman, 1995. The sensitivity of arctic coasts to Global Change is postulated by some researchers Jorgenson and Ely, 1998, Sedinger, 1998. While globally averaged tide gauge records of eustatic sea level indicate that a rate of rise of about 1 mm year⁻¹ has prevailed since 4000 BC Emery and Aubrey, 1991, Douglas, 1991, Pirazzoli, 1991, Gornitz, 1993, long-term tide gauge data are lacking for western Alaska (Emery and Aubrey, 1991). Baseline data from the southern Chukchi Sea (Fig. 1) record that relative sea level has risen slowly during the late Holocene, at a rate substantially less than other regions (Jordan and Mason, 1999). Climatic factors also influence sea level over decades to centuries Gornitz et al., 1982, Van de Plassche et al., 1998, Van de Plassche, 2000, Varekamp and Thomas, 1998 and influence the morphology and erosion potential of high latitude coasts.

Section snippets

Northwest Alaska: seismic and isostatic stability

Kotzebue Sound and Seward Peninsula lie within a moderately active seismogenic province connected to the Brooks Range Eittreim et al., 1977, Thenhaus et al., 1982. Sporadic 20th century seismic activity is documented adjacent the eastern Chukchi Sea, with only two earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 to 6.0 during the last 70 years (Fujita et al., 1990). Despite this activity, co-seismic elevation changes are not detectable during the Holocene, as indicated by the position (8–10 m above MSL) of the

Recognizing eustatic sea level fluctuations

Relative sea level changes were first noted in western Alaska based on the subtidal elevations of archaeological middens along Saint Lawrence Island (Rainey, 1941, p. 463). Subsided archaeological sites adjacent to lagoons near Barrow led Hume (1965, p. 1166) to infer a rapid rise of sea level rise, 0.5–1 m, during (cal) AD 200–300, based on ¹⁴C ages (calibrated following Stuiver et al., 1998) on wood within beach ridges. Moore (1960) also proposed that northwest Alaska storm ridge elevation

Study area: the north Seward Peninsula coast

Research from 1986 to 1994 concentrated within the northern Seward Peninsula depositional cell with its terminus and depositional sink at the Cape Espenberg spit (Mason, 1997; Mason and Jordan, 1993, Mason et al., 1995, Mason et al., 1997, Jordan and Mason, 1999). Data collected from Shishmaref Lagoon margin marsh peats led to the derivation of a sea level curve (Jordan and Mason, 1999). Data collected in 1996 from another depositional system at Cape Prince of Wales (Fig. 3) adds several sea

Depositional environments

Several depositional environments are useful in inferring past sea level position along the northwest Alaska coast (Fig. 1), ranging from transgressed terrestrial and marsh peats, cultural midden deposits and prograding beach ridge and dune systems Van de Plassche, 1986, Shennan et al., 1983, Carter, 1988, Roep, 1986. Lagoon margin and deltaic locations provide the least biased estimates of paleo-sea level datum because storm effects are less frequent in these locations. Two settings produced

Results: lower storm levels graded to lower sea levels

Former sea level datum planes were obtained from a cutbank exposure on Lopp Lagoon within the oldest depositional unit of the Wales complex (Fig. 3a,b). This section also establishes a minimum limiting age of 2000 cal BC for the development of the spit platform underlying the beach ridge facies. During 1700–1100 cal BC, a stabilized surface 1 m below present MHHW was buried by thick storm overwash sand. A salt marsh formed from 800 cal BC to AD 1, with repeated phases of sand deposition due to

Conclusions: implications for 21st century global change

Radiometrically dated salt marsh peats and storm facies (shell, driftwood) from across northwest Alaska record only a slight rise in eustatic sea level of 1.5 m, ca. 0.3 mm year⁻¹ on average, during the last 6000 years. A eustatic response is indicated by the trendline through data points because the eastern shores of the Chukchi Sea are not subject to appreciable co-seismic effects or glacial isostasy. Short-term fluctuations of relative sea level are superimposed on this long-term trend as

Acknowledgments

The Shared Beringian Heritage Project of the National Park Service funded our research from 1991 to 1995. Field research in 1996 at Wales was supported as part of a NSF grant to R.K. Harritt (Environmental and Natural Resources Institute, University of Alaska, Anchorage). This paper is a contribution to IGCP Project 367, Late Quaternary Coastal Records of Rapid Change.

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Minimal late Holocene sea level rise in the Chukchi Sea: arctic insensitivity to global change?

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Northwest Alaska: seismic and isostatic stability

Recognizing eustatic sea level fluctuations

Study area: the north Seward Peninsula coast

Depositional environments

Results: lower storm levels graded to lower sea levels

Conclusions: implications for 21st century global change

Acknowledgments

Quat. Res.

Quat. Res.

Quat. Res.

Quat. Int.

Quat. Res.

Quat. Res.

Global Planet. Change

Quat. Res.

Radiocarbon dating of coastal peat, Barrow, Alaska

Science

Coastal Environments: An Introduction to the Physical, Ecological and Cultural Systems of Coastlines

Geology of the southeastern Chukchi Sea

Global sea level rise

J. Geophys. Res.

Depositional environments of the Yukon delta, northeastern Bering Sea

Geol. Mijnbouw

Marine molluscs as indicators environmental change in glaciated North America and Greenland during the 18,000 years

Geographie Physique Quaternaire

Tectonic imprints on sedimentary deposits in Hope Basin

Sea Levels, Land Levels and Tide Gauges

Paleoecology of an arctic estuary

Arctic

Seismicity and focal mechanisms of the Arctic region and the North American plate boundary in Asia

A comparison of differences between recent and late Holocene sea-level trends from eastern North America and other selected regions

Global sea level changes during the last century

Global sea-level trend in the past half-century

Science

The last Interglaciation in Alaska: stratigraphy and paleoecology of potential sites

Quat. Int.

Quaternary marine transgressions in Alaska

Sea-level changes during the last 2000 years at Point Barrow, Alaska

Science

Shoreline processes near Barrow, Alaska: a comparison of the normal and the catastrophic

Arctic

Subtle topographic variation of ecosystems on the Yukon Delta: Implications for sea level rise