Relative fall of Holocene sea level and coastal progradation, northeastern Spencer Gulf, S

6000 years B.P. to the present, this dataset details relative sea level fall and coastal progradation in northeastern Spencer Gulf, South Australia. It was constructed by the Australian Ocean Data Network using precise elevation measurements of beach ridges and sea-grass deposits, combined with 14C dating of mollusc shells and other materials. The data shows a sequence of sea-level events from a highstand around 6000-4000 years B.P. to a continued fall in the last 2000 years.

Use Cases

• Modeling Holocene sea-level curves based on dated beach ridge and sea-grass deposit elevations.
• Analyzing coastal progradation rates in carbonate-dominated environments over the last 6000 years.
• Investigating potential tectonic uplift influences on relative sea level using the described seismic context.
• Calibrating regional paleoenvironmental reconstructions using the established facies indicators.

Strengths

• Includes precise elevation measurements for key sea-level indicators like beach ridges (+1.1m to +1.8m A.H.D.) and sea-grass deposits (< -2m A.H.D.).
• Provides a temporally resolved history spanning 6000 years, with events broken into specific millennia.
• Uses 14C dating on multiple material types (mollusc shells, sea-grass roots, shell hash) for chronology.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the single study area in Spencer Gulf.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Field measurements and laboratory 14C dating of geological samples.

Time Range

6000 years B.P. to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 05:08:06.447852; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northeastern Spencer Gulf, South Australia