Holocene sea-level change and ice-sheet history in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica

A new Holocene sea-level record from the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica, has been obtained by dating the lacustrine–marine and marine–lacustrine transitions that occur in sediment cores from lakes which were formerly connected to the sea. From an elevation of ∼7.5 m 8000 yr ago, relative sea-level rose to a maximum ∼9 m above present sea-level 6200 yr ago. Since then, sea-level has fallen monotonically until the present. The precision of the new record makes it suitable for constraining the recent history of the ice sheet in that region, using numerical models of glacio-hydro-isostasy. Simplified regional models suggest that the ice-sheet margin has retreated 30–40 km since the last glacial maximum, with 600–700 m of thinning occurring at the present coastline.