POSTGLACIAL SEA-LEVEL CHANGE ON A ROTATING EARTH - FIRST RESULTS FROMA GRAVITATIONALLY SELF-CONSISTENT SEA-LEVEL EQUATION

We present and solve a gravitationally self-consistent sea-level equat ion which governs postglacial sea-level variations on a spherically sy mmetric, self-gravitating, viscoelastic and rotating Earth. We find th at the inclusion of a glacio-isostatically induced rotational excitati on can significantly affect previous predictions of both present-day s ea-level rates and postglacial sea-level histories which were based on a theory that assumed a non-rotating Earth model. To illustrate, we c onsider present-day sea-level rates (and tide-gauge corrections) along the US east coast, and relative sea-level curves in the far field of the late Pleistocene ice sheets.