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 CASPAGE:
Dating Caspian Sea Level
Change
IGCP programme 481
- The Caspian Sea is a laboratory for sea level change. Between 1929
and 1977 Caspian sea level fell three metres, and between 1977 and 1995 it
rose again by 3 metres at a rate of 13 cm a year, a hundred times faster
than sea-level rise in the oceans during the 20th century.
- Rapid sea level change is a major environmental problem for coastal
habitats and human activities in all Caspian countries.
- Drowning Caspian shores show in an accelerated way what would happen
along oceanic shores at global sea-level rise due to climatic warming.
- Caspian sea level change is forced by global processes such as the
North Atlantic Oscillation, solar forcing, deglaciation and
tectonics.
- Past Caspian sea level offers a yardstick for past precipitation
changes and therefore of past changes in global climate.
- The IGCP project CASPAGE (Dating Caspian Sea Level Change) aims to
establish a precise Caspian sea-level curve for the recent geological past.
This can help us in understanding the pace of global change in the northern
hemisphere in the past, and to improve prediction of future Caspian
sea-level change and its environmental consequences
Project
coordinators:
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