High-frequency fluctuations in heavy mineral assemblages from Upper Jurassic sandstones of the Piper Formation, UK North Sea: Relationships with sea-level change and floodplain residence

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Morton ◽  
David Mundy ◽  
Gail Bingham
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
North Sea ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Sea Level Change ◽  
Upper Jurassic ◽  
Heavy Mineral ◽  
Level Change ◽  
Mineral Assemblages ◽  
Frequency Fluctuations

Towards a vulnerability assessment of the UK and northern European coasts: the role of regional climate variability

2005 ◽  
Vol 363 (1831) ◽  
pp. 1329-1358 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.N Tsimplis ◽  
D.K Woolf ◽  
T.J Osborn ◽  
S Wakelin ◽  
J Wolf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Wave Height ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Positive Response ◽  
Sea Level Change ◽  
Empirical Relationships ◽  
Level Change ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Uk

Within the framework of a Tyndall Centre research project, sea level and wave changes around the UK and in the North Sea have been analysed. This paper integrates the results of this project. Many aspects of the contribution of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) to sea level and wave height have been resolved. The NAO is a major forcing parameter for sea-level variability. Strong positive response to increasing NAO was observed in the shallow parts of the North Sea, while slightly negative response was found in the southwest part of the UK. The cause of the strong positive response is mainly the increased westerly winds. The NAO increase during the last decades has affected both the mean sea level and the extreme sea levels in the North Sea. The derived spatial distribution of the NAO-related variability of sea level allows the development of scenarios for future sea level and wave height in the region. Because the response of sea level to the NAO is found to be variable in time across all frequency bands, there is some inherent uncertainty in the use of the empirical relationships to develop scenarios of future sea level. Nevertheless, as it remains uncertain whether the multi-decadal NAO variability is related to climate change, the use of the empirical relationships in developing scenarios is justified. The resulting scenarios demonstrate: (i) that the use of regional estimates of sea level increase the projected range of sea-level change by 50% and (ii) that the contribution of the NAO to winter sea-level variability increases the range of uncertainty by a further 10–20 cm. On the assumption that the general circulation models have some skill in simulating the future NAO change, then the NAO contribution to sea-level change around the UK is expected to be very small (<4 cm) by 2080. Wave heights are also sensitive to the NAO changes, especially in the western coasts of the UK. Under the same scenarios for future NAO changes, the projected significant wave-height changes in the northeast Atlantic will exceed 0.4 m. In addition, wave-direction changes of around 20° per unit NAO index have been documented for one location. Such changes raise the possibility of consequential alteration of coastal erosion.

scholarly journals Future storm surge impacts on insurable losses for the North Sea region

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1205-1216 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Gaslikova ◽  
A. Schwerzmann ◽  
C. C. Raible ◽  
T. F. Stocker
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Storm Surge ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Sea Level Change ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Mean Sea Level ◽  
Level Change ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea

Abstract. The influence of climate change on storm surges including increased mean sea level change and the associated insurable losses are assessed for the North Sea basin. In doing so, the newly developed approach couples a dynamical storm surge model with a loss model. The key element of the approach is the generation of a probabilistic storm surge event set. Together with parametrizations of the inland propagation and the coastal protection failure probability this enables the estimation of annual expected losses. The sensitivity to the parametrizations is rather weak except when the assumption of high level of increased mean sea level change is made. Applying this approach to future scenarios shows a substantial increase of insurable losses with respect to the present day. Superimposing different mean sea level changes shows a nonlinear behavior at the country level, as the future storm surge changes are higher for Germany and Denmark. Thus, the study exhibits the necessity to assess the socio-economic impacts of coastal floods by combining the expected sea level rise with storm surge projections.

Variations in physiography, tidal forcing, and bottom shear stress in palaeo-seas: lessons learned from numerical modelling.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Zuchuat ◽  
Elisabeth Steel ◽  
Ryan Mulligan ◽  
Daniel Collins ◽  
J.A. Mattias Green
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Sea Level Change ◽  
Sedimentary Facies ◽  
Upper Jurassic ◽  
Tidal Dynamics ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
Level Change ◽  
Tidal Harmonics ◽  
Tidal Amplification ◽  
The Impact

&lt;p&gt;The physiography (geometry and bathymetry) of a basin and its latitude are the primary parameters that dictate the tidal dynamics in shoreline&amp;#8211;shelf systems. Understanding the impact that changes in physiography have on tides allows researchers to 1) improve interpretations of historical sedimentary processes in shallow-marine basins, and 2) better predict potential variations in tidal dynamics in response to an anthropogenic-driven relative sea level change.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here, we present an analysis of numerical modelling of tidal propagation in the Upper Jurassic Sundance and Curtis Seas demontrating that basin-scale amplification and dampening of tides occurred in different palaeophysiographic configurations, and more localised amplification relating to tidal harmonics occurred in certain physiographic scenarios. Consequently, palaeophysiography was the primary control on both the magnitude and location of tidal amplification, flow speed, and bed shear stress, whereas secondary controls were initial tidal forcing and bottom drag coefficient.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Simulation results for the palaeophysiography with a 600 m depth at the mouth of the system suggest a distribution of sedimentary facies comparable to those documented in the Upper Jurassic lower Curtis Formation, apart from the innermost Curtis Sea, near to the palaeoshoreline. Sediments potentially supplied by aeolian processes during regression and increased aridity were likely reworked by tides during a subsequent a transgression as the climate became more humid. The palaeophysiography with a 600 m depth at the mouth of the system can therefore be considered a realistic palaeophysiographic configuration for the Sundance and Curtis Seas given the similarities that exist between the predicted distribution of sedimentary facies and their actual distribution in the lower Curtis Formation. In this palaeophysiography, the Sundance Sea and the Curtis Sea would have thus attained a maximum depth of ~240 m and 40-45 m, respectively. In this context, the simulated tidal range in the Curtis Sea would have reached 2.60 m, which would classify the Curtis Sea as a meso-tidal system (2x 1.30 m tidal amplitude).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Finally, using change in palaeophysiographic configuration as a proxy for relative sea-level variations revealed the non-uniqueness (sensu Burgess &amp; Prince, 2015) of sedimentary successions deposited in tide-dominated basin, given that tidal amplification in the system was controlled by palaeophysiographic configuration: one specific succession could be the product of several, equally-valid relative sea-level histories. Reciprocally, the impact of relative sea-level change on different successions is non-unique, since local tidal harmonics and the characteristics of coeval deposition may vary significantly during relative sea level changes.&lt;/p&gt;

The southern North Sea as a natural palaeo-laboratory to reconstruct the coastal response to Last Interglacial sea-level rise

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Barlow ◽  
Victor Cartelle ◽  
Oliver Pollard ◽  
Lauren Gregoire ◽  
Natalya Gomez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Recent Observation ◽  
Sea Level Change ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Level Change ◽  
Southern North Sea

&lt;p&gt;Current models that project sea-level rise beyond 2100 have large uncertainties because recent observation encompass a too limited range of climate variability to provide robust tests against which to simulate future changes. It is crucial to turn to the geological record where there are large-scale changes in climate, but the current interglacial provides limited evidence for how the Earth-system responds to increased temperatures, and therefore it is necessary to study previous climatically-warm periods. Global temperatures during the Last Interglacial were ~1&lt;sup&gt;o&lt;/sup&gt;C warmer than pre-industrial values and 3-5&lt;sup&gt;o&lt;/sup&gt;C warmer at polar latitudes, during which time global mean sea level was likely 6-9 m above present. Though the drivers of warming during the Last Interglacial are different to those of today, it is the amplified warming at polar latitudes, the primary locations of the terrestrial ice masses likely to contribute to long term sea-level rise, which makes the Last Interglacial an ideal palaeo-laboratory to understand coastal response to sea-level rise. &amp;#160;However, our understanding of Last Interglacial sea level change is primarily limited to tropical and sub-tropical latitudes and it is important to understand the response of temperate estuarine settings to rising sea level.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The ERC-funded RISeR project (Rates of Interglacial Sea-level Change, and Responses) focuses on specifically targeting palaeo shorelines buried within the southern North Sea, preserved beyond the limit of the Last Glacial Maximum ice sheets. Buried Last Interglacial sequences in this area provide a valuable record of marine transgression and are being unveiled in new geophysical and geotechnical datasets acquired to support the offshore renewable energy development. This offshore sedimentary archives offer significant advantages over the geomorphologically restricted onshore records allowing us to trace the transgression over a much large area, and should capture the earliest flooding of the Last Interglacial North Sea basin, when the far-field data suggests ice sheet melt was at it maximum. By integrating the already available datasets with newly acquired samples as part of the project, we aim to develop new palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the Last Interglacial sea-level change from northwest Europe, providing the first chronological constraints on timing, and therefore rates. This has the potential to allow us to &amp;#8216;fingerprint&amp;#8217; the source of melt (Greenland and/or Antarctica) during the interglacial sea-level highstand.&lt;/p&gt;

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