engleski

Indicators of relative sea-level change on the example of the island of Vis (Croatia)

In order to trace the evolution of the Croatian shoreline during the late Holocene, we have been investigating and correlating different markers along the Croatian coast (FOUACHE et al., 2000, 2005 ; FAIVRE & FOUACHE, 2003). The correlation of geomorphologic, archaeological and biological markers is considered to be a very good method for the study of relative sea-level change. As archaeological markers the submerged remains whose function was directly related to the sea-level in the time of construction have been used. In this contribution we demonstrate the example of the submerged port remains and stress the importance of the functional height of the structures (ANTONIOLI et al., 2007) related to the sea-level at the time of construction. However, only when the measuring procedure is precisely defined the measured values would be comparable all around the world and could be used as a precise sea-level indicator. Different geomorphologic markers, the most important of which is the marine notch, have been mapped and measured. Since tidal notches are hard to date, the biological markers, such as coralline algae rims, have also been studied and dated by radiocarbon analysis, in order to indirectly estimate the age of notches. All the obtained data from the island of Vis were further compared with predictions derived from the glacio-hydroisostatic models of LAMBECK et al. (2004) and LAMBECK& PURCELL(2005) associated with the Last Glacial cycle in order to reconstruct the coastline evolution and to separate the isostatic-eustatic component from tectonic vertical movements.

sea-level; archaeological remains; notches; algal rim

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