The magnitude and cause of short-term eustatic Cretaceous sea-level change: A synthesis

Aquifer-eustasy as the main driver of short-term sea-level fluctuations during Cretaceous hothouse climate phases

“…Finally, we discuss some of the consequences of aquifer-eustasy processes for both greenhouse periods of the past, and the overall Earth System in today's global warming epoch, the Anthropocene. Thereby this paper supplements and substantiates the recent review paper by Sames et al (2016) as well as the very recent study on Cretaceous sea-level by Ray et al (2019).…”

“…Although sea-level was generally high compared with today (Conrad 2013), fluctuating within tens of millions of years (the second-order curves of sequence stratigraphy models, e.g. Haq 2014), we also identify shorter superimposed fluctuations with amplitudes of c. 10-40 m (sea-level change magnitude category 'modest' of Ray et al 2019). Such fluctuations are observed not only during cool greenhouse conditions (Kidder & Worsley 2010;Hay & Floegel 2012), when ice on Earth was still conceivable (e.g.…”

“…These cyclicities must be reconciled with the behaviour of various interdependent proxies, as well as with respect to evidence of aquifer-eustasy in the geological record for the Cretaceous and Triassic, respectively (e.g. Jacobs & Sahagian 1993;Föllmi 2012;Wagreich et al 2014;Wendler et al 2014Li et al 2018;Ray et al 2019). In the advancing twenty-first century, right in the middle of the Anthropocene, we have been and are confronted by the consequences of a rapidly warming Earth, quickly waning glaciers and continental ice sheets, continuously rising global sealevel and the prospect that mankind is probably facing an anthropogenic greenhouse world in the very near future (within a few centuries) that will be largely ice-free.…”

“…Moucha et al 2008;Petersen et al 2010). The lack of definite demonstration that the majority of short-term Cretaceous sedimentary cycles are eustatic in nature, and thus a response of climate changes, remains indeed a big issue depending on the availability of stratigraphic resolution and global correlation on timescales equal to or below the duration of sea-level changes (see Ray et al 2019). However, there is growing evidence for climatically driven, short-term eustasy in the Cretaceous rock record and beyond (see the section 'Evidence for and impact of aquifer-eustasy in Earth history' and Ray et al 2019).…”

“…This paper focuses on Cretaceous short-term sealevel changes, and provides evidence for mechanisms for eustasy and approaches to their recognition and correlation. In that, we elaborate mainly on a relatively new hypothesis for an additional major factor controlling sea-level and contributing to short-term sea-level fluctuations at different, climate-modedependent scales: aquifer-eustasy (Hay & Leslie 1990;Wendler et al 2011Wendler et al , 2014Föllmi 2012;Wagreich et al 2014Li et al 2018;Ray et al 2019). Here we discuss the growing evidence for this process occurring during hothouse climate periods of Earth history, such as those within the Cretaceous and the Triassic.…”