Submergent coastline

A submergent coastline, or drowned coastline, is a stretch of coast that has been flooded by a relative rise in sea level, whether from isostatic or eustatic causes, in contrast to an emergent coastline shaped by a relative fall in sea level; many such coastlines formed at the end of the last glacial period, when the retreat of the ice sheets drove both a global rise in sea level and local changes in land height. They can form through isostatic change, such as post-glacial adjustment of the land or tectonic subsidence caused by earthquakes or volcanic activity, or through eustatic sea level rise, including the thermal expansion of ocean water as it warms; a submergent coastline can result from either the sea rising or the land itself falling.