Abstract Protected tidal inlets in four estuaries along 100 km of the south-central Oregon coast contain tidal-marsh stratigraphic sequences that suggest different styles of relative sea-level rise during the late Holocene. The south-central coast lies 70 to 90 km east of the leading edge of the overriding North America plate in the central part of the Cascadia subduction zone. Localized differences in the style of submergence along this actively deforming coast imply differences in the rate and extent of coastal subsidence or uplift during subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate beneath the North America plate. Thick tidal-marsh peat in the northern part of the study area records gradual submergence (1.0-1.6 mm/yr since 2.0-2.5 ka) that rules out large (>0.5 m), sudden changes in relative sea level, such as have occurred along other subduction-zone coasts during some historic great earthquakes (magnitude>8). In the south part of the study area, changes in intertidal lithofacies across abrupt transgressive and regressive overlap boundaries are consistent with localized coseismic subsidence and uplift of about 0.5 to 1.0 m above faults and folds in the accretionary wedge of the North America plate. Most coseismic deformation on these local structures probably coincides with great subduction earthquakes, but some localized deformation may reflect much smaller earthquakes that occur independently of plate-boundary events.