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http://cgrg.geog.uvic.ca/abstracts/PerkinsOnceDuring.html
... that last one dumped 163,000 km3 of fresh water (more than 3 times the amount contained in all the world's lakes today) into the ocean in approx 1 year, raising global sea level by 0.5m in addition to the rise already in place from other glacial meltwater that was draining off continents.
Typical contintental shelf slope is approx 1:200, so that's a 1km strip of coastline submerged in one year. Very flat areas (eg Indus / Tigris / Euphrates) have flat slopes of 1:20000 so that same 0.5m rise would swallow a 10km strip.
Update 2007-05-21: One possible explanation for the catastrophic outflow that initiated the Younger Dryas period now been given close attention is that of a comet impact around 12,900 years ago. See this article for more info and references.
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simon
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