Ocean science. Coral clues to rapid sea-level change

Earth's climate can change substantially on time scales of 1000 years or so, but given the time it takes for an ice sheet to grow or melt, it has been unclear whether continental ice sheets-and hence global sea levels-mirror these rapid changes. In his Perspective, Henderson discusses the report by Thompson and Goldstein, who have used a new correction method to date coral samples that are up to 250,000 years old. The corals can be used to deduce past sea levels. The resulting sea-level record shows that sea levels have varied on millennial time scales even during times of high sea level and relative climate stability.     

The Phanerozoic record of global sea-level change

We review Phanerozoic sea-level changes [543 million years ago (Ma) to the present] on various time scales and present a new sea-level record for the past 100 million years (My). Long-term sea level peaked at 100 +/- 50 meters during the Cretaceous, implying that ocean-crust production rates were much lower than previously inferred. Sea level mirrors oxygen isotope variations, reflecting ice-volume change on the 10(4)- to 10(6)-year scale, but a link between oxygen isotope and sea level on the 10(7)-year scale must be due to temperature changes that we attribute to tectonically controlled carbon dioxide variations. Sea-level change has influenced phytoplankton evolution, ocean chemistry, and the loci of carbonate, organic carbon, and siliciclastic sediment burial. Over the past 100 My, sea-level changes reflect global climate evolution from a time of ephemeral Antarctic ice sheets (100 to 33 Ma), through a time of large ice sheets primarily in Antarctica (33 to 2.5 Ma), to a world with large Antarctic and large, variable Northern Hemisphere ice sheets (2.5 Ma to the present).     

Synchronism of the siberian traps and the permian-triassic boundary

Uranium-lead ages from an ion probe were taken for zircons from the ore-bearing Noril'sk I intrusion that is comagmatic with, and intrusive to, the Siberian Traps. These values match, within an experimental error of +/-4 million years, the dates for zircons extracted from a tuff at the Permian-Triassic (P-Tr) boundary. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the P-Tr extinction was caused by the Siberian basaltic flood volcanism. It is likely that the eruption of these magmas was accompanied by the injection of large amounts of sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere, which may have led to global cooling and to expansion of the polar ice cap. The P-Tr extinction event may have been caused by a combination of acid rain and global cooling as well as rapid and extreme changes in sea level resulting from expansion of the polar ice cap.     

Antarctic timing of surface water changes off Chile and Patagonian ice sheet response

Marine sediments from the Chilean continental margin are used to infer millennial-scale changes in southeast Pacific surface ocean water properties and Patagonian ice sheet extent since the last glacial period. Our data show a clear "Antarctic" timing of sea surface temperature changes, which appear systematically linked to meridional displacements in sea ice, westerly winds, and the circumpolar current system. Proxy data for ice sheet changes show a similar pattern as oceanographic variations offshore, but reveal a variable glacier-response time of up to approximately 1000 years, which may explain some of the current discrepancies among terrestrial records in southern South America.     

The position of the gulf stream during quaternary glaciations

Ocean general circulation theories predict that the position of the boundary between subtropical and subpolar gyres (and therefore the position of the Gulf Stream-North Atlantic Current system and the subpolar-subtropical front) is set by the line of zero "Ekman pumping," where there is no convergence or divergence of water in the directly wind-forced surface layer of the ocean. In the present-day North Atlantic Ocean this line runs southwest to northeast, from off the Carolinas to off Ireland. However, during the last ice age (18,000 years ago) the subpolar-subtropical boundary ran more zonally, directly toward Gibraltar. A numerical atmospheric general circulation model indicates that the field of Ekman pumping 18,000 years ago was modified by the presence of a continental ice cap more than 3 kilometers thick such that the line of zero Ekman pumping overlaid the paleogyre boundary. These results demonstrate that the presence of a thick continental ice sheet could have caused changes in sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic during Quaternary glaciations by altering wind patterns.     

Long-term sea-level fluctuations driven by ocean basin dynamics

Earth's long-term sea-level history is characterized by widespread continental flooding in the Cretaceous period (approximately 145 to 65 million years ago), followed by gradual regression of inland seas. However, published estimates of the Late Cretaceous sea-level high differ by half an order of magnitude, from approximately 40 to approximately 250 meters above the present level. The low estimate is based on the stratigraphy of the New Jersey margin. By assimilating marine geophysical data into reconstructions of ancient ocean basins, we model a Late Cretaceous sea level that is 170 (85 to 270) meters higher than it is today. We use a mantle convection model to suggest that New Jersey subsided by 105 to 180 meters in the past 70 million years because of North America's westward passage over the subducted Farallon plate. This mechanism reconciles New Jersey margin-based sea-level estimates with ocean basin reconstructions.     

Rapid fluctuations in sea level recorded at huon peninsula during the penultimate deglaciation

About 140,000 years ago, the breakup of large continental ice sheets initiated the Last Interglacial period. Sea level rose and peaked around 135,000 years ago about 14 meters below present levels. A record of Last Interglacial sea levels between 116,000 years to 136, 000 years ago is preserved at reef VII of the uplifted coral terraces of Huon Peninsula in Papua New Guinea. However, corals from a cave situated about 90 meters below the crest of reef VII are 130, 000 +/- 2000 years old and appear to have grown in conditions that were 6 degreesC cooler than those at present. These observations imply a drop in sea level of 60 to 80 meters. After 130,000 years, sea level began rising again in response to the major insolation maximum at 126,000 to 128,000 years ago. The early (about 140,000 years ago) start of the penultimate deglaciation, well before the peak in insolation, is consistent with the Devils Hole chronology.     

Origin and mechanism of large-scale climatic oscillations

Numerical experiments with a simplified thermodynamic model of the glacier-ocean-atmosphere global system have been performed. Characteristic regimes of the system are auto-oscillations with periods varying between 20,000 and 80,000 years. The longer climatic waves are generated by the influence of variations of the earth's orbital parameters. Computed changes of glacial area, temperature, sea level, and other climate characteristics have values within expected ranges. The transition from a relatively warm epoch (when continental ice sheets are absent) to conditions characteristic of the Pleistocene is modeled. The calculated curves show how weak temperature fluctuations have been followed by large-scale oscillations.     

Iceberg discharges into the north atlantic on millennial time scales during the last glaciation

High-resolution studies of North Atlantic deep sea cores demonstrate that prominent increases in iceberg calving recurred at intervals of 2000 to 3000 years, much more frequently than the 7000-to 10,000-year pacing of massive ice discharges associated with Heinrich events. The calving cycles correlate with warm-cold oscillations, called Dansgaard-Oeschger events, in Greenland ice cores. Each cycle records synchronous discharges of ice from different sources, and the cycles are decoupled from sea-surface temperatures. These findings point to a mechanism operating within the atmosphere that caused rapid oscillations in air temperatures above Greenland and in calving from more than one ice sheet.     

Sea level change through the last glacial cycle

Sea level change during the Quaternary is primarily a consequence of the cyclic growth and decay of ice sheets, resulting in a complex spatial and temporal pattern. Observations of this variability provide constraints on the timing, rates, and magnitudes of the changes in ice mass during a glacial cycle, as well as more limited information on the distribution of ice between the major ice sheets at any time. Observations of glacially induced sea level changes also provide information on the response of the mantle to surface loading on time scales of 10(3) to 10(5) years. Regional analyses indicate that the earth-response function is depth dependent as well as spatially variable. Comprehensive models of sea level change enable the migration of coastlines to be predicted during glacial cycles, including the anthropologically important period from about 60,000 to 20,000 years ago.     

Global sea level trend in the past century

Data derived from tide-gauge stations throughout the world indicate that the mean sea level rose by about 12 centimeters in the past century. The sea level change has a high correlation with the trend of global surface air temperature. A large part of the sea level rise can be accounted for in terms of the thermal expansion of the upper layers of the ocean. The results also represent weak indirect evidence for a net melting of the continental ice sheets.     

The mid-Pleistocene transition in the tropical Pacific

A sea surface temperature (SST) record based on planktonic foraminiferal magnesium/calcium ratios from a site in the western equatorial Pacific warm pool reveals that glacial-interglacial oscillations in SST shifted from a period of 41,000 to 100,000 years at the mid-Pleistocene transition, 950,000 years before the present. SST changes at both periodicities were synchronous with eastern Pacific cold-tongue SSTs but preceded changes in continental ice volume. The timing and nature of tropical Pacific SST changes over the mid-Pleistocene transition implicate a shift in the periodicity of radiative forcing by atmospheric carbon dioxide as the cause of the switch in climate periodicities at this time.     

Ice volume and sea level during the last interglacial

During the last interglacial period, ~125,000 years ago, sea level was at least several meters higher than at present, with substantial variability observed for peak sea level at geographically diverse sites. Speculation that the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed during the last interglacial period has drawn particular interest to understanding climate and ice-sheet dynamics during this time interval. We provide an internally consistent database of coral U-Th ages to assess last interglacial sea-level observations in the context of isostatic modeling and stratigraphic evidence. These data indicate that global (eustatic) sea level peaked 5.5 to 9 meters above present sea level, requiring smaller ice sheets in both Greenland and Antarctica relative to today and indicating strong sea-level sensitivity to small changes in radiative forcing.     

Sea Levels during the Past 35,000 Years

A sea-level curve of the past 35,000 years for the Atlantic continental shelf of the United States is based on more than 80 radiocarbon dates, 15 of which are older than 15,000 years. Materials include shallow-water mollusks, oolites, coralline algae, beachrock, and salt-marsh peat. Sea level 30,000 to 35,000 years ago was near the present one. Subsequent glacier growth lowered sea level to about -130 meters 16,000 years ago. Holocene transgression probably began about 14,000 years ago, and continued rapidly to about 7000 years ago. Dates from most shelves of the world agree with this curve, suggesting that it is approximately the eustatic curve for the period.     

Oceanic mechanisms for amplification of the 23,000-year ice-volume cycle

Situated adjacent to the largest Northern Hemispher ice sheets of the ice ages, the mid-latitude North Atlantic Ocean has an important role in the earth's climate history. It provides a significant local source of moisture for the atmosphere and adjacent continents, forms a corridor that guides moisture-bearing storms northward from low latitudes, and at times makes direct contact along its shorelines with continental ice masses. Evidence of major ice-ocean-air interactions involving the North Atlantic during the last 250,000 years is summarized. Outflow of icebergs and meltwater initially driven by summer insolation over the ice sheets affects midlatitude ocean temperatures, summer heat storage, winter sea-ice extent, and global sea level. These oceanic responses in turn influence the winter moisture flux back to the ice sheets, as well as ablation of land ice by calving. Spectral data indicate that the oceanic moisture and sea-level feedbacks, in part controlled by glacial melt products, amplify Milankovitch (insolation) forcing of the volumetrically dominant mid-latitude ice sheets at the 23,000-year precessional cycle.     

1989—2018年南极布兰斯菲尔德海峡海冰时空变化分析

基于1989—2018年美国冰雪中心海冰密集度数据，分析近30年南极布兰斯菲尔德海峡及附近海域海冰分布规律及变化趋势。结果表明，布兰斯菲尔德海峡内部海冰属于1年冰，海冰密集度于2月达到最低，8月达到最高，历史上强厄尔尼诺年份与该区域海冰密集度较低的年份存在明显对应关系。对30年冰情线性拟合得到年际变化趋势，海峡内结冰月份普遍延迟，年结冰月数以减少为主。3个代表站点的海冰密集度分析结果显示，海峡内A站点海冰变化与海峡口外北部海域B站点的相关性较强，与海峡口外南部靠近威德尔海区域C站点的相关性弱。循环神经网络模型可用于预测和分析海冰密集度的时序变化，尤其是适合海冰密集度相对较低的时序分析。     

Discovery of till deposition at the grounding line of Whillans Ice Stream

We report on the discovery of a grounding-line sedimentary wedge ("till delta") deposited by Whillans Ice Stream, West Antarctica. Our observation is that grounding-line deposition serves to thicken the ice and stabilize the position of the grounding line. The ice thickness at the grounding line is greater than that of floating ice in hydrostatic equilibrium. Thus, the grounding line will tend to remain in the same location despite changes in sea level (until sea level rises enough to overcome the excess thickness that is due to the wedge). Further, our observation demonstrates the occurrence of rapid subglacial erosion, sediment transport by distributed subglacial till deformation, and grounding-line sedimentation, which have important implications for ice dynamics, numerical modeling of ice flow, and interpretation of the sedimentation record.     

Climate impact of late quaternary equatorial pacific sea surface temperature variations

Magnesium/calcium data from planktonic foraminifera in equatorial Pacific sediment cores demonstrate that tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were 2.8 degrees +/- 0.7 degrees C colder than the present at the last glacial maximum. Glacial-interglacial temperature differences as great as 5 degrees C are observed over the last 450 thousand years. Changes in SST coincide with changes in Antarctic air temperature and precede changes in continental ice volume by about 3 thousand years, suggesting that tropical cooling played a major role in driving ice-age climate. Comparison of SST estimates from eastern and western sites indicates that the equatorial Pacific zonal SST gradient was similar or somewhat larger during glacial episodes. Extraction of a salinity proxy from the magnesium/calcium and oxygen isotope data indicates that transport of water vapor into the western Pacific was enhanced during glacial episodes.     

Ice-sheet and sea-level changes

Future sea-level rise is an important issue related to the continuing buildup of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, with the potential to raise sea level approximately 70 meters if completely melted, dominate uncertainties in projected sea-level change. Freshwater fluxes from these ice sheets also may affect oceanic circulation, contributing to climate change. Observational and modeling advances have reduced many uncertainties related to ice-sheet behavior, but recently detected, rapid ice-marginal changes contributing to sea-level rise may indicate greater ice-sheet sensitivity to warming than previously considered.     

A 10,000-year record of Arctic Ocean sea-ice variability--view from the beach

We present a sea-ice record from northern Greenland covering the past 10,000 years. Multiyear sea ice reached a minimum between ~8500 and 6000 years ago, when the limit of year-round sea ice at the coast of Greenland was located ~1000 kilometers to the north of its present position. The subsequent increase in multiyear sea ice culminated during the past 2500 years and is linked to an increase in ice export from the western Arctic and higher variability of ice-drift routes. When the ice was at its minimum in northern Greenland, it greatly increased at Ellesmere Island to the west. The lack of uniformity in past sea-ice changes, which is probably related to large-scale atmospheric anomalies such as the Arctic Oscillation, is not well reproduced in models. This needs to be further explored, as it is likely to have an impact on predictions of future sea-ice distribution.