Quaternary Sea-Level Changes

Colin V. Murray-Wallace is a Quaternary geologist and currently a Professor and Head of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the University of Wollongong. His long-standing research interests have centred on Quaternary sea-level changes, neotectonics, carbonate depositional systems and amino acid racemization dating, and he has undertaken coastal field investigations in southern Australia, Vietnam, Hawaii and South Africa. Professor Murray-Wallace was project leader of IGCP (International Geological Correlation Program) project 437 (1999–2003) 'Coastal environmental change during sea-level highstands', and leader of the INQUA (International Union for Quaternary Research) Coastal and Marine Commission (2004–7). He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Quaternary Science Reviews since 2008. Colin D. Woodroffe is a coastal geomorphologist in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Wollongong. He has studied the stratigraphy and development of coasts in Australia and New Zealand, as well as on islands in the West Indies and Indian and Pacific Oceans. He has written and co-authored three coastal studies books. Professor Woodroffe was national representative on the INQUA Quaternary Shorelines subcommission, and served on the committees of both the IGCP project 274 'Coastal Evolution in the Quaternary' and its follow-up project, and on the Scientific Steering Committee of the LOICZ (Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone) project within IGBP. He was a lead author on the coastal chapter in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report. In 2012 he was awarded the R. J. Russell Award from the Coast and Marine Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers.

• Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Sea-level changes: the emergence of a Quaternary perspective; 2. The causes of Quaternary sea-level changes; 3. Palaeo sea-level indicators; 4. Methods of dating Quaternary sea-level changes; 5. Vertical displacement of shorelines; 6. Pleistocene sea-level changes; 7. Sea-level changes since the Last Glacial Maximum; 8. Current and future sea-level changes; References; Index.

'Both Murray-Wallace and Woodroffe have made distinguished contributions to the field, and they explain clearly and with excellent figures why Quaternary sea-level changes are complex and far-reaching now that advances in technology have enabled greater insight. They carefully examine what constitutes evidence - actuality and inferences drawn - used by different approaches. They champion geographical variability over what might be called 'the tyranny of the average' in global models … this book should be essential for everyone curious about Earth systems. Students, undergraduates and postgraduates, their instructors and mentors, will find it endlessly fascinating and informative.' Quaternary Science Reviews