Comment on: Mid-Holocene water-level changes in the lower Rhine-Meuse delta (western Netherlands): implications for the reconstruction of relative mean sea-level rise, palaeoriver-gradients and coastal evolution by Van de Plassche et al. (2010)

 

M.P. Hijma & K.M. Cohen

M.P. Hijma, Tulane University, School of Science and Engineering, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 6823 St. Charles Avenue, 101 Blessey Hall, New Orleans, LA, USA. Email: mhijma@tulane.edu.

K.M. Cohen, Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Physical Geography, P.O. Box 80115, 3508 TC, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Deltares, Division BGS, Department of Applied Geology and Geophysics, P.O. Box 85467, 3508 TC, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

 

Abstract

In May 2009, Orson van de Plassche sadly passed away. In a paper of which parts, especially the discussion section, were written after his death, new data and a revision of an existing sea-level curve are presented for the Rotterdam area (Van de Plassche et al., 2010). This comment concerns two topics addressed in the discussion section: 1) connection of their revised Rotterdam relative sea-level curve for the period 7900-5300 cal yr BP (MSL-R2; Jelgersma, 1961; Van de Plassche, 1982; 1995; Berendsen et al., 2007; Van de Plassche et al., 2010) to the sea-level curve for the same area for the period 9000-7500 cal yr BP (MSL-R1; Hijma & Cohen, 2010); 2) The role of the river gradient on the calculation of the magnitude of a sea-level jump that occurred between 8450-8250 cal yr BP (Hijma & Cohen, 2010).