Identifying a historic shoreline using fine-scale slope variation

Senior thesis written for Oceanography 445

[author abstract] A rise of just one meter of sea level rise could displace millions of people and cause billions of dollars of damage. This research identifies a historic submerged shoreline along the continental shelf of Vancouver Island, Canada. This historic shoreline was established during a glacial maximum period and subsequent shorelines were formed due to the change in sea level throughout the period of glacial melt beginning ~14,300 years ago. To identify the historic shoreline, data was collected using a Konsberg EM302 multibeam echosounder on 27 January 2013 aboard the R/V Thomas G Thompson. Using slope variation along the area examined as a historic shoreline and bathymetric images of depth, we are now able to investigate the rate of sea level change through direct observations of historical shorelines.

University of Washington School of Oceanography