RISeR at the Sea level change in the past, present and future conference

In February 2023 Natasha led the organisation of the Geological Society of London "Sea level change in the past, present and future" conference. This two-day conference bought together scientists working on sea level across multiple timescales, from 100's of millions of years in the past, to millennia in the future.

The Earth’s sea level has changed substantially over the last 100's of millions of years due to factors such as tectonic activity and glaciations. The geological record contains evidence of how much sea levels have changed and what organisms dominated seawaters in the past. This story of change can tell us how sea level might respond to changing environmental factors in the future. The rate that sea level has changed over the last 125,000 years helps inform crucial political decisions around climate targets and how we adapt the built environment.

As part of the conference Natasha presented on the latest state-of-the-science from the RISeR project through a presentation entitled “Rates and drivers of Last Interglacial relative sea-level change in North West Europe: fingerprinting Antarctic ice sheet melt”, from this important time period. The work was well received and no doubt is starting to make an impact on the international research community, with the main results of our work still forthcoming.