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How did melting glaciers reflood continental platforms in the early Silurian?

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Silurian paleogeography — Silurian Period Distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins during the middle part of the Silurian Period. Included in the paleogeographic reconstruction are the locations of the interval's subduction zones.

During the early Silurian Period, the reflooding of vast continental platforms was primarily driven by a rapid, global rise in sea level resulting from the melting of extensive glaciers that had formed during the Late Ordovician ice age.12

As these glaciers retreated, the water previously locked in ice was released back into the ocean basins, causing a dramatic eustatic sea-level rise. This influx of water submerged coastal valleys and rocky shores that had been exposed and eroded during the preceding glacial lowstand, when sea levels had fallen by as much as 70 metres (about 230 feet). The return of marine sedimentation during this period effectively buried these previously subaerial landscapes, establishing the shallow seas that characterized much of the early Silurian environment.132