uwe.roland.gross

New Study: 8000 Years Ago, Relative Sea Level Was 30 Meters Higher Than Today Across East Antarctica

A group of emperor penguins on a snowy landscape with a large ice formation under a clear blue sky.

From NoTrickZone

By Kenneth Richard

A group of emperor penguins standing on ice with a backdrop of snowy mountains and a glacier, reflecting in calm water.

Today’s sea levels are the lowest of the last several thousand years.

Carbon dating evidence from the elevation of abandoned penguin rookeries (and other proxies) reveal relative sea level (RSL) was ~30 m higher than today across East Antarctica about 8000 years ago (Small et al., 2025).

Following that high stand RSL fell rapidly at rates of 4 to 10 m per 1000 years. RSL was 24 m above present sea level (ASL) by 7200 years ago, 15 m ASL by 5700 years ago, 5 m ASL by 3200 years ago, and still 1 m ASL about 800 years ago.

A scientific study diagram depicting relative sea-level changes over time in the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica, including data points related to penguin rookeries and sea-level height estimates.
Image Source: Small et al., 2025

Another study from Antarctica’s South Shetland Islands suggests RSL has plummeted by 10 meters just in the last 2000 years after a 15 m highstand 9000 years ago.

Graph depicting the Holocene relative sea level curve for the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, showing changes in elevation over time.
Image Source: Watcham et al., 2011

There are regions in the northern hemisphere where RSL reached similarly high elevations as they did across East Antarctica. The southeast coast of Sweden, the southern Baltic Sea, records RSL 22 m higher than today from approximately 7500 to 6200 years ago (Katrantsiotis et al., 2023).

A graph depicting relative sea level changes in the Västervik-Gamblebyviken region of Sweden over the last 10,000 years, illustrating various transgressions and isolations associated with historical sea level fluctuations.
Image Source: Katrantsiotis et al., 2023

Discover more from Climate- Science.press

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.