Considering the impacts caused by the landform patterns

sea level changes

sedimentary compaction and tectonic subsidence

the coastline of the Pearl River paleoestuary at 6 000 a BP is rebuilt based on the elevation contours in recent time and borehole data. The bathymetry of the Pearl River paleoestuary is reconstructed by using the waterdepth formula and Kring interpolation. Several error factors influencing the coastline and bathymetry

including local terrain changes

slope of piedmonts

and slope of upper reaches are discussed. The results show that special topographic structures of the Pearl River Delta make it possible to rebuild the coastline and bathymetry of the Pearl River paleoestuary. The Pearl River paleoestuary can be divided into inner and outer parts. There are lots of islands and several ancient channels of the West and North Rivers in the inner estuary. The contours of the outer estuary are parallel to those of the coastline.