Tahitian record suggests Antarctic collapse
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Material Information

Title:
Tahitian record suggests Antarctic collapse
Series Title:
Nature Magazine Volume 483 Palaeoclimate
Creator:
Kopp, Robert E.
Publisher:
Macmillan Publishers Limited
Publication Date:

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
Climate change ( lcsh )
Sea level rise ( lcsh )
Antarctica ( lcsh )
Ice sheets ( lcsh )

Notes

Abstract:
Understanding ice-sheet dynamics in Earth’s past is central to testing our understanding of how ice sheets might behave in the future, and therefore to improving projections of future sea-level rise. The most recent episode of great sea-level change occurred as a result of the melting of the massive ice sheets of the Last Glacial Maximum, which ended about 19,000 years ago1. In 1989, a record of sea-level change at Barbados — based on fossil corals in sediment cores and the depth distribution of their modern descendants — provided a detailed perspective on the interval from 19,000 to 8,000 years ago, when sea level at Barbados rose from about 120 metres to roughly 20 m below its current level2. This record revealed that the sea-level rise was not smooth, but was instead punctuated by a sharp increase — estimated to be about 24 m in less than 1,000 years — dubbed meltwater pulse 1A (MWP-1A). Evidence for MWP-1A was subsequently found in records from a number of other sites, including Tahiti, Hawaii and the Sunda Shelf in southeast Asia. But, until now, no locality had produced a record that matched the bathymetric and chronological precision of the Barbados record. On page 559 of this issue, Deschamps et al.3 present a new sea-level record of MWP-1A from Tahiti that ends this data drought. Their results are based on fossil corals and vermetid gastropods (a type of sea snail) collected during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 310, which cored 37 boreholes from sites off the island’s northern, western and southern coasts4. This record allows a fresh look at some key questions about MWP-1A. When, precisely, did it take place? How big was it? Where did the meltwater come from? And what was the relationship between MWP-1A and climate changes taking place during the end of the ice age? ( English )

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Florida International University
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