Collapse of Polar Ice Sheets during the Stage 11 Interglacial
Contentious observations of Pleistocene shoreline features on the tectonically stable islands of Bermuda and the Bahamas have suggested that sea level about 400,000 years ago was more than 20 metres higher than it is today. Geochronologic and geomorphic evidence indicates that these features formed...
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ftcolumbiauniv:oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/D86D5QZ5 2023-05-15T13:50:01+02:00 Collapse of Polar Ice Sheets during the Stage 11 Interglacial Raymo, Maureen E. Mitrovica, Jerry X. 2012 https://doi.org/10.7916/D86D5QZ5 English eng Nature Publishing Group https://doi.org/10.7916/D86D5QZ5 Paleoclimatology Geomorphology Articles 2012 ftcolumbiauniv https://doi.org/10.7916/D86D5QZ5 2019-04-04T08:10:30Z Contentious observations of Pleistocene shoreline features on the tectonically stable islands of Bermuda and the Bahamas have suggested that sea level about 400,000 years ago was more than 20 metres higher than it is today. Geochronologic and geomorphic evidence indicates that these features formed during interglacial marine isotope stage (MIS) 11, an unusually long interval of warmth during the ice age. Previous work has advanced two divergent hypotheses for these shoreline features: first, significant melting of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, in addition to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Greenland Ice Sheet; or second, emplacement by a mega-tsunami during MIS 11 (ref. 4, 5). Here we show that the elevations of these features are corrected downwards by ~10 metres when we account for post-glacial crustal subsidence of these sites over the course of the anomalously long interglacial. On the basis of this correction, we estimate that eustatic sea level rose to ~6–13 m above the present-day value in the second half of MIS 11. This suggests that both the Greenland Ice Sheet and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed during the protracted warm period while changes in the volume of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet were relatively minor, thereby resolving the long-standing controversy over the stability of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during MIS 11. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Greenland Ice Sheet Columbia University: Academic Commons Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet Greenland West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
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Open Polar |
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Columbia University: Academic Commons |
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ftcolumbiauniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Paleoclimatology Geomorphology |
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Paleoclimatology Geomorphology Raymo, Maureen E. Mitrovica, Jerry X. Collapse of Polar Ice Sheets during the Stage 11 Interglacial |
topic_facet |
Paleoclimatology Geomorphology |
description |
Contentious observations of Pleistocene shoreline features on the tectonically stable islands of Bermuda and the Bahamas have suggested that sea level about 400,000 years ago was more than 20 metres higher than it is today. Geochronologic and geomorphic evidence indicates that these features formed during interglacial marine isotope stage (MIS) 11, an unusually long interval of warmth during the ice age. Previous work has advanced two divergent hypotheses for these shoreline features: first, significant melting of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, in addition to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Greenland Ice Sheet; or second, emplacement by a mega-tsunami during MIS 11 (ref. 4, 5). Here we show that the elevations of these features are corrected downwards by ~10 metres when we account for post-glacial crustal subsidence of these sites over the course of the anomalously long interglacial. On the basis of this correction, we estimate that eustatic sea level rose to ~6–13 m above the present-day value in the second half of MIS 11. This suggests that both the Greenland Ice Sheet and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed during the protracted warm period while changes in the volume of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet were relatively minor, thereby resolving the long-standing controversy over the stability of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during MIS 11. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Raymo, Maureen E. Mitrovica, Jerry X. |
author_facet |
Raymo, Maureen E. Mitrovica, Jerry X. |
author_sort |
Raymo, Maureen E. |
title |
Collapse of Polar Ice Sheets during the Stage 11 Interglacial |
title_short |
Collapse of Polar Ice Sheets during the Stage 11 Interglacial |
title_full |
Collapse of Polar Ice Sheets during the Stage 11 Interglacial |
title_fullStr |
Collapse of Polar Ice Sheets during the Stage 11 Interglacial |
title_full_unstemmed |
Collapse of Polar Ice Sheets during the Stage 11 Interglacial |
title_sort |
collapse of polar ice sheets during the stage 11 interglacial |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7916/D86D5QZ5 |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet Greenland West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet Greenland West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.7916/D86D5QZ5 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7916/D86D5QZ5 |
_version_ |
1766252758939205632 |