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Analysis of cores collected from Late Devensian (Weichselian) and Holocene sediments on the floor of the North Sea provides evidence of the transgression of freshwater environments during relative sea-level rise. Although many cores show truncated sequences, examples from the Dogger Bank, Well Bank and 5 km offshore of north Norfolk reveal transitional sequences and reliable indicators of past shoreline positions. Together with radiocarbon-dated sea-level index points collected from the Holocene sediments of the estuaries and coastal lowlands of eastern England these data enable the development and testing of models of the palaeogeographies of coastlines in the western North Sea and models of tidal range changes through the Holocene epoch. Geophysical models that incorporate ice-sheet reconstructions, earth rheology, eustasy, and glacio-and hydroisostasy provide predictions of sea-level relative to the present for the last 10 ka at 1-ka intervals. These predictions, added to a model of present-day bathymetry, produce palaeogeographic reconstructions for each time period. The palaeogeographic maps reveal the transgression of the North Sea continental shelf. Key stages include a western embayment off northeast England as early as 10kaBl~; the evolution of a large tidal embayment between eastern England and the Dogger Bank before 9 ka BP with connection to the English Channel prior to 8 ka Bl'; and Dogger Bank as an island at high tide by 7.5 kaBP and totally submerged by 6kaBP. Analysis of core data shows that coastal and saltmarsh environments could adapt to rapid rates of sea-level rise and coastline retreat. After 6 ka Bp the major changes in palaeogeography occurred inland of the present coast of eastern England. The palaeogeographic models provide the coastline positions and bathymetries for modelling tidal ranges at each 1-ka interval. A nested hierarchy of models, from the scale of the northeast Atlantic to the east coast of England, uses 26 tidal harmonics to reconstruct tidal regimes. Predictions consistently show tidal ranges smaller than present in the early Holocene, with only minor changes since 6 ka BP. Recalibration of previously available sea-level index points using the model results rather than present tidalrange parameters increases the difference between observations and predictions of relative sea-levels from the glacio-hydro-isostatic models and reinforces the need to search for better ice-sheet reconstructions.

This paper describes the stratigraphic and structural development of the Eastern Pontides, North Turkey, based on section logging at eight localities, construction of three structural profiles across the mountains, and published literature. The Eastern Pontides comprise a Late Carboniferous to Miocene sequence resting on a basement of Hercynian metamorphics. Late Carboniferous to Scythian sediments are continental clastics interpreted as having been deposited in an extensional half graben. The Middle Triassic is limestone, reflecting the development of a south facing passive margin. In the Late Triassic, the ocean (Palaeotethys) began to close: flysch was deposited in most places with minor shallow water limestones in the Sinemurian above an inverted half graben. All pre-Aalenian strata were deformed during the Cimmerian orogeny. After a phase of subduction-related volcanism in the Mid-Jurassic, limestones were deposited during the Late Jurassic and early Cretaceous, mainly in shallow water. The Aptian and Albian are absent due to doming in the Western Pontides prior to the opening of the Western Black Sea, but there is a thick sequence of Upper Cretaceous arc volcanic rocks and intervening turbidites. The Upper Palaeocene is absent, possibly due to rifting in the Eastern Black Sea. Major compression affected the Pontides from the Eocene to the Pliocene associated with the closure of the Tethyan Ocean. Oligocene and younger rocks are accordingly non-marine.

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