existing data of late Quaternary sea-level elevations with time. The method 

 is germane to any and all models of sea- level based on discrete data points. 

 Here the model advanced by Bloom et al . is reexamined, and a new polynomial 

 model which estimates eustatic sea-levels continuously in the range 0-140 ka 

 is developed from the Huon data. The method includes an error-analysis 

 procedure that accounts for the effects of error in radiometric dates and 

 theodolite measurements in the original data set, and extrapolates this error 

 through the continuous model. Polynomial form and error estimation are 

 indispensable to rigorous quantitative applications of sea- level data and 

 supplant less-rigorous methods used to approximate sea-level and rates of sea- 

 level rise. (Authors). 



269 PIRAZZOLI, P. A. 1986. "Secular Trends of Relative Sea-Level (RSL) 

 Changes Indicated by Tide -Gage Records," Journal of Coastal Research . Special 

 Issue, No. 1, pp 1-26. 



This paper gives the preliminary results of a new investigation based on 

 the records of 1,178 stations provided by the Permanent Service for Mean Sea- 

 level or found in the literature. The longest series available show that 

 oscillations in Relative Sea-level (RSL) can be averaged satisfactorily by 

 linear trends of secular variation when long enough periods of observation are 

 considered. The calculation has been limited to those stations providing at 

 least 50 year- long records and to some stations where the records are only 30 

 to 50 years long, if the 5 -year fluctuations of the RSL are weak during the 

 period of observation. This makes a total of 229 stations for which updated 

 trends of secular variation are now available. 



Most of the stations indicate positive upwards trends of secular varia- 

 tion, but at rates changing from one place to another. The conclusion is 

 reached that tectonic and oceanic factors are more important than average 

 global eustatic factors and that the average of all the trends indicated by 

 tide -gage stations may be biased towards a RSL rise by systematic downwarping 

 of coastlines. On a local scale, secular trends of RSL provide very useful 

 information on relative vertical movements of regional land masses and, in 

 some cases, on large scale meanderings of major oceanic currents. (Authors) 



270 PIRAZZOLI, P. A., and MONTAGGIONI. L. F. 1988. "Holocene Sea-Level 

 Changes in French Polynesia," Palaeoclimatology. Pal aeo geography. 

 Palaeoecology . Vol 68, No. 2-4, pp 153-175. 



New data on Holocene sea- levels have been obtained in 28 atolls and 10 

 high islands in the Society, Tuamotu, Gambier and Austral Islands, in an area 

 of the South Pacific as wide as western Europe. Sea-level indicators are 

 often very accurate an include exposed corals, abandoned algal ridges an reef 

 frameworks in growth position, emerged tidal notches, and skeletal reef 

 conglomerates in which the position of the former low water level at the time 

 of cementation has been determined by petrological analysis. Over 110 new 

 samples have been dated by radiocarbon. The overall pattern is that of a MSL 

 standstill at +0.8/1.0 m between 5000 and 1250 year BP. A set of radiocarbon 

 dated samples covering the period 4500 -1250 year BP almost continuously is 



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