Glacio and hydro-isostasy in the Mediterranean Sea: Clarks zones and role of remote ice sheets
Solving the sea-level equation for a spherically symmetric Earth we study the relative sea-level curves in the Mediterranean Sea in terms of Clarks zones and we explore their sensitivity to the time-history of Late-Pleistocene ice aggregates. Since the Mediterranean is an intermediate field region w...
| Published in: | Annals of Geophysics |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
2007
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.4401/ag-3054 https://doaj.org/article/7e2c451a180c42d68bae843fdd705576 |
| Summary: | Solving the sea-level equation for a spherically symmetric Earth we study the relative sea-level curves in the Mediterranean Sea in terms of Clarks zones and we explore their sensitivity to the time-history of Late-Pleistocene ice aggregates. Since the Mediterranean is an intermediate field region with respect to the former ice sheets, glacio- and hydro-isostasy both contribute to sea-level variations throughout the Holocene. In the bulk of the basin, subsidence of the sea floor results in a monotonous sea-level rise, whereas along continental margins water loading produces the effect of «continental levering», which locally originates marked highstands followed by a sea-level fall. To describe such peculiar pattern of relative sea-level in this and other mid-latitude closed basins we introduce a new Clarks zone (namely, Clarks zone VII). Using a suite of publicly available ice sheet chronologies, we identify for the first time a distinct sensitivity of predictions to the Antarctic ice sheet. In particular, we show that the history of mid to Late Holocene sea-level variations along the coasts of SE Tunisia may mainly reflect the melting of Antarctica, by a consequence of a mutual cancellation of the effects from the Northern Hemisphere ice-sheets at this specific site. Ice models incorporating a delayed melting of Antarctica may account for the observations across the Mediterranean, but fail to reproduce the SE Tunisia highstand. |
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