Figure 6. Radiocarbon dating supplies the time information to construct a sea-level curve from preserved peats. The curve shown is for Wells, Maine. Elevation with respect to a surveying datum (NGVD) is plotted versus time, in years before present. Although there is some scatter in the data, due to the different types of peats used, we can define a clear trend of rising sea-level over the past 5000 years, that has decreased from a rate of 1.2 mm/yr (0.05 in/yr) about 4000 BP, to 0.5 mm/yr (0.02 in/yr) 2000 BP and perhaps as low as 0.2 mm/yr (0.008 in/yr)1000 BP.

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Last updated on October 6, 2005

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