Primeval forest discovered deep off Alabama coast
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57592920/primeval-forest-discovered-deep-off-alabama-coast/

In reply to a robust discussion in chat with PermeateFree, I was wrong – and as usual – at the top of my voice.

I thought that there hadn’t been any systematic global sea level changes of the order of 100m, and that some other geologic mechanism would need to be invoked and possibly added to the global sea-level curve to account for this forest to be preserved at this depth of below sea level. I was wrong. No need to invoke geology as well as, or instead of climate change.

“The important point is that sea level has generally risen over the past 18,000 years from a lowstand somewhere 100 m below today’s oceans.”

http://geology.uprm.edu/Morelock/patterns.htm

As well – to illustrate a part of the discussion we had about non-equal isostatic glacial loading of continents (from the same reference):

“Some early studies off the New England coast placed the lowstand near 130 meters. Other investigations that take into account the local effects of glacial loading beneath the glacier and compensatory uplift further away place that low closer to 85 meters (Dillon & Odale, 1968 in New England; Moerner, 1971 in Scandinavia). “