Ice Age Paleotopography

A gravitationally self-consistent theory of postglacial relative sea level change is used to infer the variation of surface ice and water cover since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The results show that LGM ice volume was approximately 35 percent lower than suggested by the CLIMAP reconstruction an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Author: Peltier, W. Richard
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1994
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.265.5169.195
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.265.5169.195
Description
Summary:A gravitationally self-consistent theory of postglacial relative sea level change is used to infer the variation of surface ice and water cover since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The results show that LGM ice volume was approximately 35 percent lower than suggested by the CLIMAP reconstruction and the maximum heights of the main Laurentian and Fennoscandian ice complexes are inferred to have been commensurately lower with respect to sea level. Use of these Ice Age boundary conditions in atmospheric general circulation models will yield climates that differ significantly from those previously inferred on the basis of the CLIMAP data set.