IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v430y2004i7003d10.1038_nature02859.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Similar meltwater contributions to glacial sea level changes from Antarctic and northern ice sheets

Author

Listed:
  • Eelco J. Rohling

    (Southampton Oceanography Centre)

  • Robert Marsh

    (Southampton Oceanography Centre)

  • Neil C. Wells

    (Southampton Oceanography Centre)

  • Mark Siddall

    (Southampton Oceanography Centre
    University of Bern)

  • Neil R. Edwards

    (University of Bern
    University of Bern)

Abstract

The period between 75,000 and 20,000 years ago was characterized by high variability in climate1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 and sea level13,14. Southern Ocean records of ice-rafted debris15 suggest a significant contribution to the sea level changes from melt water of Antarctic origin, in addition to likely contributions from northern ice sheets, but the relative volumes of melt water from northern and southern sources have yet to be established. Here we simulate the first-order impact of a range of relative meltwater releases from the two polar regions on the distribution of marine oxygen isotopes, using an intermediate complexity model. By comparing our simulations with oxygen isotope data from sediment cores, we infer that the contributions from Antarctica and the northern ice sheets to the documented sea level rises between 65,000 and 35,000 years ago13 were approximately equal, each accounting for a rise of about 15 m. The reductions in Antarctic ice volume implied by our analysis are comparable to that inferred previously for the Antarctic contribution to meltwater pulse 1A (refs 16, 17), which occurred about 14,200 years ago, during the last deglaciation.

Suggested Citation

  • Eelco J. Rohling & Robert Marsh & Neil C. Wells & Mark Siddall & Neil R. Edwards, 2004. "Similar meltwater contributions to glacial sea level changes from Antarctic and northern ice sheets," Nature, Nature, vol. 430(7003), pages 1016-1021, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:430:y:2004:i:7003:d:10.1038_nature02859
    DOI: 10.1038/nature02859
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02859
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature02859?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:430:y:2004:i:7003:d:10.1038_nature02859. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.