Dynamic Topography Change of the Eastern United States Since 3 Million Years Ago

Sedimentary rocks from Virginia through Florida record marine flooding during the mid-Pliocene. Several wave-cut scarps that at the time of deposition would have been horizontal are now draped over a warped surface with a maximum variation of 60 meters. We modeled dynamic topography by using mantle...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2013-06, Vol.340 (6140), p.1560-1563
Main Authors: Rowley, David B., Forte, Alessandro M., Moucha, Robert, Mitrovica, Jerry X., Simmons, Nathan A., Grand, Stephen P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Buoyancy
Coastal plains
Continental shelves
Deposition
Earth
Earth mantle
Evolution
Geology
Ice sheets
Inferences
Measuring instruments
Scarps
Sea level
Sedimentary geology
Sediments
Stratigraphy
Topography
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Summary:Sedimentary rocks from Virginia through Florida record marine flooding during the mid-Pliocene. Several wave-cut scarps that at the time of deposition would have been horizontal are now draped over a warped surface with a maximum variation of 60 meters. We modeled dynamic topography by using mantle convection simulations that predict the amplitude and broad spatial distribution of this distortion. The results imply that dynamic topography and, to a lesser extent glacial isostatic adjustment account for the current architecture of the coastal plain and proximal shelf. This confounds attempts to use regional stratigraphie relations as references for longer-term sea-level determinations. Inferences of Pliocene global sea-level heights or stability of Antarctic ice sheets therefore cannot be deciphered in the absence of an appropriate mantle dynamic reference frame.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1229180