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Relative Sea-Level (RSL) Cycle

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Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences

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Definition

Relative sea-level (RSL) is the position of sea surface relative to the base level. Its cyclic change between transgression and regression takes into account two main components: eustatic change and vertical movement (tectonic/isostatic) of the sea floor (modified from Posamentier and Allen, 1999).

Introduction

One of the main achievements in stratigraphy in the beginning of the twentieth century was to use sedimentological fingerprints of global transgressions and regressions for a general division of the Phanerozoic earth history. Suess (1906) developed the concept of eustasy to link physical stratigraphy of different regions with the frame of global transgressions and regressions. This concept was refined by von Bubnoff (1954) who subdivided the geological history during the Phanerozoic on the global scale into six megacycles, each consisting of two transgression phases followed by an inundation, differentiation, regression, and emersion phase. The assumption of a...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of Szczecin, Ul. Mickiewicza 18, 70-383, Szczecin, Poland

    Jan Harff

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  1. Jan Harff
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Correspondence to Jan Harff .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Jan Harff

  2. Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Martin Meschede

  3. Leibiniz Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Sven Petersen

  4. Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and Lit c/o Helmholtz-Center for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany

    Jörn Thiede

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Harff, J. (2015). Relative Sea-Level (RSL) Cycle. In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_197-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_197-1

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