Long-term and short-term global Cenozoic sea-level estimates

Backstripping analysis of three continuously cored, well-dated boreholes from the New Jersey Coastal Plain (Ocean Drilling Program [ODP] Leg 150X) indicates a long-term (10⁸–10⁷ yr) eustatic fall of ≈100 m since 55 Ma (early Eocene) and suggests short-term (0.5–3 m.y.) eustatic falls of less than ≈70 m. Eustatic estimates are calculated from residuals between the decompacted, unloaded, and paleodepth-corrected records and tectonic subsidence (assuming a cooling lithospheric plate). Because the residuals are similar among the three sites, we interpret them as an approximation of the eustatic signal.