Submergent coastline

A submergent landform: the drowned river valley (ria) of Georges River, Australia

Submergent coastlines are stretches along the coast that have been inundated by the sea due to a relative rise in sea levels. This occurs due to either isostacy or eustacy.

Submergent coastline are the opposite of emergent coastlines which have experienced a relative fall in sea-levels.

Features of a submergent coastline are:

• drowned river valleys or rias
• drowned glaciated valleys or fjords.

Some geographers consider that estuaries are drowned mouths of rivers.

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