Sea-level change through the last glacial cycle: geophysical, glaciological and palaeogeographic consequences

Sea-level fluctuations in recent geological time are primarily the result of climate change with its associated glacial cycles. Observations reveal a complex spatial and temporal pattern of change that contains a record of the timing of the glacial cycles, of the locations and dimensions of the past ice sheets, of the earth's response function to long-term loading and of tectonic events. By analysing data from different locations and different epochs these different contributions can be separated and comprehensive models of the change associated with the glacial cycles have been developed. These provide constraints on the depth and, to lesser degree, the spatial variation in mantle viscosity, and on the volumes of ice locked up in the individual past ice sheets. These models provide the reference for establishing rates of vertical tectonic motion and also enable the migration of coastlines to be predicted, particularly for the anthropologically important period leading out of the last ice age.