Comparison of the sea level fluctuations in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Black Seas for the last 100 years

Abstract

There is no consensus about the mode by which sea level changed in the Black Sea during the Holocene(Yanko-Hombach, 2007). Some scientists (e.g., Balabanov, 2007; Yanko-Hombach,2007)suggest that Black Sea level changes occurred in an oscillatory manner,while others (e.g., Pirazzoli, 1991; Bruckner et al., 2010) challenge this.In their opinion,the sea-level changes in the Black Sea cannot be different from those that occurred in the World Ocean in general, and the Mediterranean Sea in particular.This paper focuses on the comparison between sea-level fluctuations deduced from instrumental observations in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean,and Black Sea during the last 100 years.The main goal is to show how(but not why!)the Black Sea level has behaved most recently.We understand perfectly that geological time is not comparable with that of the period of instrumental observations. However,it is probable that the behavior of the Black Sea level in recent time and in the geological past could show similar patterns but on a different scale.