3.1.2.3 Coastal Landscape Development- Eustatic and Isostatic Change

Long Term Sea Level Change 

Eustatic and Isostatic Change

Eustatic - changes on a world wide scale. 

Isostatic- cahnges specific to a certain area. 

Tides are responsible for daily changes in the levels at which waves break on to the land, but the average position of the sea level relative to the land has changed throughout time. Many changes took place during the Quaternary glaciation that reflected both the advance and retreat of the ice. A typical sequence would run as follows. 

Stage 1: As the climate begins to get colder, marking the onset of a new glacial period, an increasing amount of percipitation falls as snow. Eventually this snow turns into glacier ice. Snow and ice act as a store for water, so the hydrological cycle slows down- water cycled from the sea to the land (evaporation, condensation, then percipitation) does not return to the sea. As a consequence, sea level falls and this affects the whole planet. Such a worldwide phenomenon is known as eustatic fall. 

Stage 2: The weight of…