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Glacial isostasy and water depths in the Late Devensian and Holocene on the Scottish Shelf west of the Outer Hebrides
Author(s) -
Lambeck Kurt
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of quaternary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.142
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-1417
pISSN - 0267-8179
DOI - 10.1002/jqs.3390100109
Subject(s) - isostasy , glacial period , geology , holocene , glacier , citation , oceanography , paleontology , archaeology , physical geography , history , geography , library science , lithosphere , tectonics , computer science
Peacock et a/. (1992) examined two radiocarbon-dated vibrocores taken from south of St Kilda on the Scottish continental shelf, west of the Outer Hebrides, for palaeoenvironmental changes. They concluded that water depths at about 13000 y BP were about 40 m, shallower than the 100-110 m suggested by the Barbados ea-level curve of Fairbanks (1 989), and that the rapid rise in sea-level occurring at the latter location is not seen in the St Kilda evidence. Instead, sea-level appears to have remained nearly constant through the Windermere Interstadial, and they suggested that 'either the palaeontological evidence for depth is in error or that current views concerning the balance between isostasy and eustasy on the Scottish continental shelf require revision.' No model for glacial isostasy in this region was presented, however, and the purpose of this note is to examine such a model based on a recent comprehensive analysis of the glacial rebound of Creat Britain. The conclusion reached is that the palaentological evidence for water depth from the St Kilda cores is wholly consistent with models of glacio-hydroisostasy and global eustasy and that the observations of Peacock et a/. provide good palaeoenvironmental indicators'