Holocene Oscillatory Sea Level: Literature Review and Implications for Imminent Anthropogenic Multi-Meter Transgression

Higgs, R., 2026. Holocene oscillatory sea level: Literature review and implications for imminent anthropogenic multi-meter transgression. Journal of Coastal Research, 42(1), 144–164. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. The famous 1961 “Fairbridge Curve” of Holocene interglacial sea level (SL) shows meter-scale (up to ∼5 m) oscillations, based on a worldwide compilation of carbon-dated geological data points. Dozens of later authors (“wigglers”) found further evidence for such fluctuations, while dozens of others (“smoothers”), including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), deny oscillations >50 cm. The debate is settled here by a Holocene SL literature synthesis, exposing (1) flaws in the assumptions and methods used in constructing smooth SL curves, and (2) weaknesses in all five of the SL-proxy types upon which the IPCC bases its claim of smooth SL. At least one Fairbridge-type Holocene SL rise has recently been shown to have been very brief (i.e. rapid), ∼4 m in only ∼ 70 years; a comparably fast rise of 2–3 m in