A simulation model is described providing general insights into autocompaction effects in stratigraphic sequences formed on coastal mudflats and marshes over uneven basements. Lithological units and buried landscapes are progressively displaced and distorted, the synthetic sequences resembling bedding geometries described from the northwest European Holocene. Autocompaction also promotes local deposition rates that may greatly exceed the rates at which accommodation space is created. Transgressive silts are associated with especially large deposition rates, because of the high compressibility of underlying peats. The experimental relationships between apparent rates of sea-level rise and bed thickness resemble empirical trends for the Holocene. The latter are, however, reinforced by an ‘intrinsic’, lithology-related effect not included in the model.
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