Constraint of GIA in Northern Europe and the North Sea with Geological RSL and GPS Data

Abstract

<p>This study focusses on improved constraint of the millennial time-scale glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) signal at present-day, and its role as a contributor to present-day sea-level budgets. The study area extends from the coastal regions of northern Europe to Scandinavia. Both Holocene relative sea level (RSL) data as well as vertical land motion (VLM) data are incorporated as constraints in a semi-empirical GIA model. Specifically, 71 geological rates of GIA-driven RSL change are inferred from Holocene proxy data. Rates of vertical land motion from GNSS at 108 sites provide an additional measure of regional GIA deformation; within the study area, the geological RSL data complement the spatial gaps of the VLM data and vice versa. Both datasets are inverted in a semi-empirical GIA model to yield updated estimates of regional present-day GIA deformations. A regional validation is presented for the North Sea, where the GIA signal may be complicated by lateral variations in Earth structure and existing predictions of regional and global GIA models show discrepancies. The model validation in the North Sea region suggests that geological data are needed to fit independent estimates of GIA-related RSL change inferred from tide gauge rates, indicating that geological rates from Holocene data can provide an important additional constraint for data-driven approaches to GIA estimation. The geological proxy rates therefore provide a unique dataset with which to complement or validate existing data-driven approaches that use satellite era rates of change.</p>