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The Last Global Transgression of the World Ocean: Glacio-Eustasy or Tectonics?

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Abstract

The article substantiates the conclusion about the tectonic nature of the last global transgression of the World Ocean. It is based on the results of marine studies in which complete sections of transgression sediments were obtained that were separated from their substrate by the diachronous boundary of a stratigraphic uncomformity or those beginning with littoral facies. The radiocarbon dating of such sections at different levels made it possible to calculate the average rate of relative sea level rise by plotting the radiocarbon age of sediments against depth from the seafloor surface. This was constructed based on three reference areas: the underwater slope of the island of Barbados, the North Sea shelf, and the Barents Sea shelf. It was revealed that the average rates of relative sea level rise at different points in the same water area sometimes differ by an order of magnitude, which is incompatible with the eustatic nature of transgression. The maximum transgression amplitudes in the Barents and North seas are several times higher than those permissible for glacio-eustasy. It is assumed that tectonic subsidence of the area due to the planetary nature of the last marine transgression overlapped its immersion, associated with the incomplete formation of the youngest oceanic depressions of the planet located north of the submarine Greenland–Scotland Ridge.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is sincerely grateful to E.A. Gusev (VNIIOkeangeologiya, St. Petersburg) and V.D. Zarhidze (VSEGEI, St. Petersburg) for valuable advice and comments during the discussion of the problem.

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  1. Hydrogeological and Geoecological Company CJSC GIDEK, 105203, Moscow, Russia

    R. B. Krapivner

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Krapivner, R.B. The Last Global Transgression of the World Ocean: Glacio-Eustasy or Tectonics?. Geotecton. 54, 477–493 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016852120040056

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