Sea-level changes in the Netherlands during the Eemian

Abstract

This paper deals with the determination of relative heights of the seal-level during the Eemian in The Netherlands and adjacent parts of the North Sea region. Dating was based on pollen analysis. Eight levels have been established, four of them determining the phase of rising levels. one indicating the peak height of the sealevel, which is estimated at 8 m below the present sea-level at high tide during the period of the Carpinus zone, and three indicating the phase of falling sea-level, which took place in the last part of the Interglacial. After the beginning of the Weichselian, the sea-level dropped below minus 40 m and remained below that level until the early part of the Holocene. Comparison with the Channel area yielded a value of 1.42cm/century for long-term subsidence of The Netherlands since the Eemian.