Making post-glacial uplift visible: A model based high-resolution animation of shore displacement

A groundbreaking high-resolution animation reveals the dynamic nature of post-glacial uplift and shore displacement in the High Coast/Kvarken Archipelago UNESCO World Heritage site, where land rises at rates exceeding 8 mm per year. The study employed a mathematical model to transform digital elevation models (DEMs) over ~9300 years, integrating LiDAR-derived DEMs from Finland and Sweden with bathymetric data of the Gulf of Bothnia. By leveraging geophysical uplift rate surfaces and ancient shoreline observations, researchers derived an exponential model that accurately describes the non-linear correlation between elapsed time and land uplift. The animation, rendered at 4K resolution with a five-year interval between frames, provides a visually intuitive representation of this decelerating phenomenon, highlighting regional differences in post-glacial history. While future improvements may include removing post-glacially developed features like rivers, the current model offers unprecedented continuity and clarity in visualizing shore displacement.

Perheentupa, V., Mäkinen, V., & Oksanen, J. (2019). Making post-glacial uplift visible: A model based high-resolution animation of shore displacement. Abstracts of the ICA, 1, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-1-296-2019