title: Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia.
abstract: We present new sea-level reconstructions for the past 2100 y based on salt-marsh sedimentary sequences from the US Atlantic coast. The data from North Carolina reveal four phases of persistent sea-level change after correction for glacial isostatic adjustment. Sea level was stable from at least BC 100 until AD 950. Sea level then increased for 400 y at a rate of 0.6 mm/y, followed by a further period of stable, or slightly falling, sea level that persisted until the late 19th century. Since then, sea level has risen at an average rate of 2.1 mm/y, representing the steepest century-scale increase of the past two millennia. This rate was initiated between AD 1865 and 1892. Using an extended semiempirical modeling approach, we show that these sea-level changes are consistent with global temperature for at least the past millennium.
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Sea Level Research, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Kemp
authors.forename: Benjamin P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Horton
authors.forename: Jeffrey P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Donnelly
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vermeer
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rahmstorf