Calendar year age estimates of Allerød-Younger Dryas sea-level oscillations at Os

A detailed shoreline displacement curve documents the Younger Dryas transgression in western Norway. The relative sea-level rise was more than 9m in an area which subsequently experienced an emergence of almost 60 m. The sea-level curve is based on the stratigraphy of six isolation basins with bedrock thresholds. Effort has been made to establish an accurate chronology using a calendar year time-scale by 14C wiggle matching and the use of time synchronic markers (the Vedde Ash Bed and the post-glacial rise in Betula (birch) pollen). The sea-level curve demonstrates that the Younger Dryas transgression started close to the Allerød–Younger Dryas transition and that the high stand was reached only 200 yr before the Younger Dryas–Holocene boundary. The sea level remained at the high stand for about 300 yr and 100 yr into Holocene it started to fall rapidly. The peak of the Younger Dryas transgression occurred simultaneously with the maximum extent of the ice-sheet readvance in the area. Our results support earlier geophysical modelling concluding a causal relationship between the Younger Dryas glacier advance and Younger Dryas transgression in western Norway. We argue that the sea-level curve indicates that the Younger Dryas glacial advance started in the late Allerød or close to the Allerød–Younger Dryas transition