Implications of the Radiocarbon Timescale for Ice-Sheet Chronology and Sea-Level Change

• Published in: Quaternary Research
• Main Authors: Tushingham, A. Mark, Peltier, W. Richard
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1993
• Subjects: Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/qres.1993.1015; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S003358948371015X?httpAccept=text/xml; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S003358948371015X?httpAccept=text/plain; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033589400034244

Abstract A new extended radiocarbon calibration curve has allowed a reexamination of relative sea-level data based on pre-Holocene dates. At sites located far from any Late Pleistocene ice sheet, the effect of employing this new calibration curve is that the calibrated data (with ages up to 17,100 14 C yr B.P.) now agree with the corresponding relative sea-level curve predicted by the ICE-3G deglaciation model. An important implication of this new calibration curve is that the last glacial maximum (ca. 18,000 14 C yr B.P.) is inferred to have occurred 22,000-21,000 cal yr B.P. This allows for additional ice to be incorporated in a revised deglaciation model than suggested by ICE-3G. The predicted relative sealevel curves of this new model match the relative sea-level data as well as those of ICE-3G. Further, the total sea-level rise of 124 m at Barbados since the last glacial maximum predicted by this new model agrees with the estimated value of 121 ± 5 m obtained from the depths of drowned reef-crest corals.