Inherited landscapes and sea level change

How can we understand the geological record of sea level change? Sea level varies on time scales from decades to millions of years. These changes have local, regional, and global components and are caused by a wide variety of earth processes. Cloetingh and Haq review how the views of stratigraphers (who interpret the record of marine sediments) and geodynamicists (who consider changes in the shape of Earth caused by lithospheric and mantle processes) have begun to complement each other and are moving toward a more coherent interpretation of the history of sea level. They focus on cyclic sea-level changes 0.5 to 3.0 million years in duration that occurred in the Cretaceous period, approximately 145 to 65 million years ago. Science , this issue 10.1126/science.1258375 Enabled by recently gained understanding of deep-seated and surficial Earth processes, a convergence of views between geophysics and sedimentary geology has been quietly taking place over the past several decades. Surface topography resulting from lithospheric memory, retained at various temporal and spatial scales, has become the connective link between these two methodologically diverse geoscience disciplines. Ideas leading to the hypothesis of plate tectonics originated largely with an oceanic focus, where dynamic and mostly horizontal movements of the crust could be envisioned. But when these notions were applied to the landscapes of the supposedly rigid plate interiors, there was less success in explaining the observed anomalies in terrestrial topography. Solid-Earth geophysics has now reached a developmental stage where vertical movements can be measured and modeled at meaningful scales and the deep-seated structures can be imaged with increasing resolution. Concurrently, there have been advances in quantifying mechanical properties of the lithosphere (the solid outer skin of Earth, usually defined to include both the crust and the solid but elastic upper mantle above the asthenosphere). The lithosphere acts as the intermediary that transfers the effects of mantle dynamics to the surface. These developments have allowed us to better understand the previously puzzling topographic features of plate interiors and continental margins. On the sedimentary geology side, new quantitative modeling techniques and holistic approaches to integrating source-to-sink sedimentary systems have led to clearer understanding of basin evolution and sediment budgets that allow the reconstruction of missing sed