Morphological investigations on the northwest coastal plain of Mauritania (Banc d'Arguin) lead to a revised late Holocene sea-level curve. The region is characterized by extensive sand flats occasionally surmounted by low sand barriers. These barriers pick out a set of paleoshorelines attributed to the six episodes defined by Dia (2013). Morphological evidence of the extreme flatness of the coastal plain is provided by topographic transects based on total-station surveys. Index points distributed throughout the late Holocene are defined in relation to the position of the barrier sole, which is adjusted to the upper limit of the berm uprush. The elevation of index points is related to the mean sea level (MSL) through an assessment of the various errors likely to affect the results. Over the period since ca. 7000 cal yr BP, the measured elevations remain within a few decimetres of the presentday sea level. This implies that, throughout this time interval, sea level in the Mauritanian region oscillated within the usual range of natural variations, whereas oscillations of larger magnitude prevailed elsewhere. Because the study area is tectonically stable, the glacioeustatic adjustment due to hydro-isostatic effects is of minor importance in Mauritania and the relative sea level (RSL) has responded solely to the eustatic component. Therefore, we would expect to find some record of ocean syphoning through a gradual emergence of the land after the mid-Holocene marine transgression and the subsequent development of vertically stepped paleoshorelines. The absence of such evidence raises the question of whether the drop in RSL was compensated by continuing deglaciation during the late Holocene.
Introduction
Current changes in sea level need to be regarded in the light of the complexity of earlier sea level changes, which allow us to extend our knowledge of their mechanisms and variability on a longer time scale. An improved knowledge of post-glacial variations in relative sea level (RSL) over the last six millennia (late Holocene) would lead to a better understanding of the current functioning of the Earth system (Pirazzoli, 1991). During the late Holocene, sea level in low and mid latitudes has only fluctuated by approximately 1-3 m around its current elevation (e.g.)