Introduction and Terminology
Coastal subsidence, which can be described as the downward displacement of the land relative to sea level, often occurs in deltaic regions associated with riverine and estuarine sedimentation. These regions are commonly sites of thick deposits of Tertiary, Pleistocene, and.
Holocene sediments, exceeding 12,000 m in the Mississippi River delta, for example (Penland et al. 1988). Coastal subsidence in these depositional zones are a function of five processes, each described in detail below: (1) downwarping, (2) tectonic activity, (3) consolidation of Tertiary, Pleistocene, and Holocene deposits, (4) shallow subsidence, and (5) underground water and gas extraction (Fig. 1). When only natural processes are considered, 1 + 2 + 3 define deep subsidence. Shallow and deep subsidence combined equal total subsidence (Cahoon et al. 1995).
Processes contributing to total subsidence in coastal regions. Comments and numbers in parentheses indicate the relative...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Bibliography
Cahoon DR, Reed DJ, Day JW (1995) Estimating shallow subsidence in microtidal salt marshes of the southeastern United States: Kaye and Barghoorn revisited. Mar Geol 128:1–9
Cencini D (1998) Physical processes and human activities. J Coast Res 14:774–793
Chen XQ (1998) Changjiang (Yangtze) River delta, China. J Coast Res 14:838–858
Chen Z, Stanley DJ (1995) Quaternary subsidence and river channel migration in the Yangtze Delta plain, Eastern China. J Coast Res 11:927–945
Chen Z, Song BP, Wang Z, Cai YL (2000) Late quaternary evolution of the subaqueous Yangtze Delta, China: stratigraphy, sedimentation, palynology and deformation. Mar Geol 162:423–441
Church JA, Gregory JM, Huybrechts P, Kuhn M, Lambeck K, Nhuan MT, Qin D, Woodworth PL (2001) Changes in sea level. In: Houghton JT, Ding Y, Griggs DJ, Noguer M, van der Linden PJ, Dai X, Maskell K, Johnson CA (eds) Climate change 2001: the scientific basis. Cambridge University Press, Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge, pp 639–693
Coleman JM (1982) Deltas: processes of deposition and models for exploration, 2nd edn. International human resources development Corp, Boston
Emery KO, Aubrey DG (1991) Sea levels, land levels and tide gauges. Springer, New York
Penland S, Ramsey KE, McBride RA, Mestayer JT, Westphal KA (1988) Relative Sea level rise and delta-plain development in the Terrebonne parish region. Coastal Geology Technical Report. Louisiana Geological Survey, Baton Rouge
Stanley DJ (1988) Subsidence in the northeastern Nile Delta: rapid rates, possible causes, and consequences. Science 240:497–500
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Chen, Z., Rybczyk, J. (2018). Coastal Subsidence. In: Finkl, C., Makowski, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Coastal Science . Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48657-4_86-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48657-4_86-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48657-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48657-4
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences