Relative Sea Level Rise, Palaeotopography and Transgression Velocity on the Continental Shelf

After the Last Glacial Maximum some 21,000 years B.P., the sea level rose from -130 m to its present-day position, causing the shoreline to move inland, with a dramatic process called marine transgression. The transgression velocity, i.e. the velocity at which the shoreline migrated landwards, depends on the balance between the rate of the relative sea level rise and the slope of the transgressed paleo-topography. It has a key role in determining the paleo-environment variability and the potential preservation of archaeological sites. In this paper we present a simple conceptual and computational approach to reconstruct the transgression velocity on shelf areas, and discuss the different outcomes and limitations at different spatial scales, from continental (European seas) to ultra-local scale.