Late Quaternary relative sea‐level changes and the role of glaciation upon continental shelves

Sea levels of the past 20 kyr are largely determined by the response of the Earth to the last ice age. Consequently, sea-level indicators are an important source of information about the interaction between cryosphere and hydrosphere and the solid Earth. Based on the material presented at a recent European Science Foundation conference, the present paper pin-points some of the topics currently under discussion with respect to sea-level evidence found on continental shelves. These topics include possible effects of erosion and changes in palaeotidal ranges on indicators of former relative sea levels as well as the problems involved in the determination of palaeo-water depth in addition to former sea levels. More evidence is being gathered for substantial small-scale patterns in the sea-level changes at or nearby to the former ice margins. These patterns are not reproduced by the available geophysical models, which reconcile on first-order level only the large-scale pattern.