A post-glacial relative sea-level curve from Fiordland, New Zealand

摘要

The modern fjords of southwest New Zealand were previously stranded lakes isolated from the Tasman Sea by bedrock and moraine sills following the retreat of glaciers at the Last Glacial Maximum. The isolated lake basins were subsequently inundated with seawater when sea-level rise overtopped the sills. A record of the lacustrine-to-marine environmental transition is preserved in the fjord basin sediments and is identified in two New Zealand fjords with high-resolution seismic data and paleoenvironmental analysis of sediment cores. Seismic data are used to constrain the maximum sill depth and microfossil assemblages are used to track the lacustrine-to-marine transition. Chronology is-based on fourteen radiocarbon ages.