Re: "Lost World" of 8,000 years ago under North Sea


"Matt Giwer" <jull43@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:462e86dc$0$17132$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If the glaciers are melted then the ocean level has risen. The two are
directly
related. If the glaciers have retreated to, i.e. melted, only a few miles
of
where there are still glaciers today, which is necessary to get them out
of the
North Sea basin, then the water has already risen.

There is no time lag between melting glaciers and rising sea level. They
happen
at the same time and in sync.

This is a rather simplistic interpretation of what happened following the
last ice age.

Firstly, people should realise that the ice *** did not cover the entire
North Sea basin. It seems more likely that is would have covered the
northern half of the British Isles then extended to the North East, towards
Scandinavia and the Baltic region. Much of the North Sea basin which lay
between what is now eastern England and the Netherlands would have
experienced Tundra-like conditions during the coldest phases of the ice age.
It is also worth remembering that the Ice Age was not in fact a single
event. It was actually a series of fluctuations in climate in which the ice
would have retreated and advanced and there would have been various episodes
of warmer conditions, (some as warm, or warmer than now).

Another factor to take into account is Isostatic lift. This is basically the
mechanism which takes thousands of years by which the land mass of southern
Britain would have been higher above sea level than it is now owing to the
weight of ice pressing down on the northern half of the country. Since the
retreat of the ice, the northern half of the country has risen and continues
to rise (hence the reason we see many raised beaches in northern Britain).
At the same time, Southern Britain (including much of the North Sea basin)
has fallen. Therefore the combination of ice melt AND reducing land levels
has resulted in large areas beeing inundated.

This is a very "potted" version of what happened but I hope it helps to
explain things.


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