Abundant numbers of sites and studies exist in NW Europethat document the geographically and geomorphologically diverse coastalrecord from the Last Interglacial (Eemian, Ipswichian, Marine Isotope Stage5e). This paper summarises a database of 146 known Last Interglacialsea-level data points from in and around the North Sea (35 entries in theNetherlands, 10 Belgium, 23 in Germany, 17 in Denmark, 9 in Britain) and theEnglish Channel (24 entries for the British and 25 for the French side, 3 on theChannel Isles) believed to be a representative and fairly completeinventory and assessment from ∼80 published sites. Thegeographic distribution (∼1500 km SW–NE) across thenear field of the Scandinavian and British ice sheets and the attentionpaid to relative and numeric age control are assets of the NW Europeandatabase. The research history of Last Interglacial coastal environments andsea level for this area is long, methodically diverse and spread throughregional literature in several languages. Our review and databasecompilation effort drew from the original regional literature and paidparticular attention to distinguishing between sea-level index points(SLIPs) and marine and terrestrial limiting points. We also incorporated anupdated quantification of background rates of basin subsidence for thecentral and eastern North Sea region, utilising revised mapping of the baseQuaternary, to correct for significant basin subsidence in this depocentre.As a result of subsidence, lagoonal and estuarine Last Interglacialshorelines of the Netherlands and the German Bight are preserved below the surface. Incontrast, Last Interglacial shorelines along the English Channel areencountered above modern sea level.This paper describes the dominant sea-level indicators from the regioncompliant with the WALIS database structure and referenced to original data sources (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6478094, Cohen et al., 2021). The sea-level proxies are mostly obtained from locations with good lithostratigraphic, morphostratigraphic and biostratigraphical constraints. Most continental European sites have chronostratigraphic age control, notably through regional pollen association zones with duration estimates. In all regions, many SLIPs and limiting points have further independent age control from luminescence, uranium series, amino acid racemisation and electron spin resonance dating techniques. Main foreseen usage of this database for the near-field region of the European ice sheets is in glacial isostatic adjustment modelling and fingerprinting Last Interglacial ice sheet melt. |
