A comparison of late Holocene and twentieth-century sea-level trends from the UK and North Sea region

Abstract

SUMMARY A comparison has been made of secular trends in sea-level from the twentieth century and late Holocene period, determined from tide gauge and geological data respectively, for 18 sites from the UK and North Sea region. In the main the two data sets of trends are well correlated with a small number of possible exceptions, although even these are consistent with the general correlation within the errors. The tide gauge trends are systematically larger than the long-term sea-level trends inferred from geological data by approximately 1.0 ± 0.15 mm yr-1 (statistical error only) which can be interpreted as an estimate of the regional eustatic rate of sea-level change for the twentieth century. There is no evidence in the region for an acceleration of sea-level trends in recent decades, and this rate can consequently be inferred to be the current eustatic trend.