Drowned Paleolandscapes – a geological record for assessing landscape and environment response to postglacial sea level rise and climate change (RisingSea)
Name of applicant
Katrine Juul Andresen
Title
Associate Professor
Institution
Aarhus University
Amount
DKK 4,998,358
Year
2023
Type of grant
Semper Ardens: Accelerate
What?
The preserved paleolandscapes of the North Sea that were drowned during the postglacial sea level rise 11,000-6,000 years ago, represent a unique geological archive for studying low-topography landscape and environment response to rising sea level and climate change, across large areas and different landscape types, and through a long time scale.
Why?
Adaptions for future sea level and climate changes lack a basic understanding and reference framework regarding the natural and long-term adjustments of low-lying areas and environments to rising sea level. The green transition is a window of opportunity for large amounts of offshore windfarm data, but at the same time a strict time constrain for drowned paleolandscape research in the North Sea.
How?
In the RisingSea project, I will use the vast amounts of legacy data from the North Sea together with new targeted 3D seismic data and sediment cores to unlock the preserved geological records, create a Drowned Paleolandscape Atlas with morphological and geophysical characterization of different paleolandscape types, and study the geological processes associated with the flooding.