To inform projections of sea-level rise in response to future climate change, this project aims to address two fundamental questions: a) how did global mean sea level (GMSL) change since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and what were the contributions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and temperature-driven variations, and b) what were the trends, magnitudes, and driving mechanisms of spatial variability in relative sea level (RSL) during this period?

 

To answer these questions, we will 1) produce the first spatially-comprehensive, standardized global compilation of geological relative sea-level reconstructions from the LGM to present; 2) incorporate the geological data into hierarchical statistical models to address our research questions and make projections of spatial variability of RSL for regional scenarios of future sea-level rise; and 3) distribute the global dataset to the glacial isostatic adjustment modeling community to provide a high-quality standard for model tuning and optimization. The database and model outputs will be made freely available on a web-based platform and will provide a much-needed resource to the paleoclimate community.