New paper finds sea levels in Uruguay have been falling for 6000 years

A paper published today in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology finds sea levels in Uruguay have been decreasing for the past 6,000 years. According to the authors, "the sea level was above the present level approximately 6000 yr BP [before the present] and has been declining since then."

Figure 5. A. Relative sea level curve obtained from our data. Envelope and smoothed curve. B. Relative sea level curve constructed with data from the literature. Envelope and smoothed curve. C. Relative sea level curve obtained using the combined dataset. Envelope and smoothed curve. D. The three previous curves shown together. In all cases, ages are in calibrated years BP. MSL: mean sea level.

Relative sea level during the Holocene in Uruguay

• Sergio Martínez^, , 
• Alejandra Rojas 

• Instituto de Cs. Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República. Iguá 4225, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.01.010, How to Cite or Link Using DOI

• Permissions & Reprints

Abstract

A curve of the relative sea level during the Holocene in Uruguay was constructed based on data from beach storm deposits. The error envelope was too great to register small but significant oscillations, but the number of points used and the coincidence between our data and those from the literature show that in Uruguay the sea level was above the present level approximately 6000 yr BP and has been declining since then. The non-parametric smoothing technique used favours a smooth declining sea level curve similar to that proposed for the coast of Brazil (different slope).

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Highlights

► We constructed a relative sea level curve for the Holocene of Uruguay, ► It was constructed on the basis of beach storm deposits. ► The curve is smoothly declining since around 6400 calculated yr AP.