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Updated: May 31, 2026

Using Generative Art to Convey Past and Future Climate Transitions
Published on: March 31, 2023
Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia
Andrew C Kemp1, Benjamin P Horton, Jeffrey P Donnelly
1Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Sea Level Research, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Abstract:
We present new sea-level reconstructions for the past 2100 y based on salt-marsh sedimentary sequences from the US Atlantic coast. The data from North Carolina reveal four phases of persistent sea-level change after correction for glacial isostatic adjustment. Sea level was stable from at least BC 100 until AD 950. Sea level then increased for 400 y at a rate of 0.6 mm/y, followed by a further period of stable, or slightly falling, sea level that persisted until the late 19th century. Since then, sea level has risen at an average rate of 2.1 mm/y, representing the steepest century-scale increase of the past two millennia. This rate was initiated between AD 1865 and 1892. Using an extended semiempirical modeling approach, we show that these sea-level changes are consistent with global temperature for at least the past millennium.
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