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 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

Climate stability during the Pliocene warm period

We present a high-resolution climate record from a sediment core spanning an 80-kyr interval of time during the mid-Pliocene epoch, when warmer conditions and lower global ice volume prevailed worldwide. Oxygen and carbon isotope analyses were made on benthic and planktonic foraminifera from ODP Site 981 in the North Atlantic. The amplitude and approximate recurrence interval of suborbital variations in these records are comparable to those of Holocene and marine isotope stage 11 (MIS 11) records from the North Atlantic. We conclude that the mid-Pliocene warm interval was a time of relative climatic stability. These results suggest that warmer climatic conditions alone may not necessarily enhance variability in the climate system, a finding that may facilitate predictions of 21st century climatic response to anthropogenic warming

Crowdsourcing in the Quaternary sea level community: insights from the Pliocene

In order to establish the ‘fingerprint’ of past sea level changes, many field measurements of paleo sea level from globally distributed locations are needed. It is because this problem requires a geographically expansive database that it becomes an ideal candidate for crowdsourcing techniques. In order to crowdsource sea level data from the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period, we developed three tools: PlioWiki, RSLcalc and RSLmap. PlioWiki is a web portal, open to contributions, where investigators can share knowledge on Pliocene to Quaternary relative sea levels. RSLcalc is a standardized, ready-to-use tool for field geologists to log their own sea level field observations and, if they desire, submit new data to an open access database of relative sea level markers. RSLmap allows one to visualize and query the database built with RSLcalc on a Google Map interface. Here we describe these tools and discuss the advantages of crowdsourcing, relative to traditional approaches, for the creation of sea level databases for any time period

Reply to: Terry, J. and Goff, J. comment on “Late Cenozoic sea level and the rise of modern rimmed atolls” by Toomey et al. (2016), Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 451: 73–83

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 469 (2017): 159-160, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.11.028

Late Cenozoic sea level and the rise of modern rimmed atolls

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 451 (2016): 73-83, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.03.018.Sea-level records from atolls, potentially spanning the Cenozoic, have been largely overlooked, in part because the processes that control atoll form (reef accretion, carbonate dissolution, sediment transport, vertical motion) are complex and, for many islands, unconstrained on million-year timescales. Here we combine existing observations of atoll morphology and corelog stratigraphy from Enewetak Atoll with a numerical model to (1) constrain the relative rates of subsidence, dissolution and sedimentation that have shaped modern Pacific atolls and (2) construct a record of sea level over the past 8.5 million years. Both the stratigraphy from Enewetak Atoll (constrained by a subsidence rate of ~ 20 m/Myr) and our numerical modeling results suggest that low sea levels (50–125 m below present), and presumably bi-polar glaciations, occurred throughout much of the late Miocene, preceding the warmer climate of the Pliocene, when sea level was higher than present. Carbonate dissolution through the subsequent sea-level fall that accompanied the onset of large glacial cycles in the late Pliocene, along with rapid highstand constructional reef growth, likely drove development of the rimmed atoll morphology we see today.Support for this work was provided through a Jackson School Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship to Michael Toomey

Insolation-driven 100,000-year glacial cycles and hysteresis of ice-sheet volume

The growth and reduction of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets over the past million years is dominated by an approximately 100,000-year periodicity and a sawtooth pattern (gradual growth and fast termination). Milankovitch theory proposes that summer insolation at high northern latitudes drives the glacial cycles, and statistical tests have demonstrated that the glacial cycles are indeed linked to eccentricity, obliquity and precession cycles. Yet insolation alone cannot explain the strong 100,000-year cycle, suggesting that internal climatic feedbacks may also be at work. Earlier conceptual models, for example, showed that glacial terminations are associated with the build-up of Northern Hemisphere ‘excess ice’, but the physical mechanisms underpinning the 100,000-year cycle remain unclear. Here we show, using comprehensive climate and ice-sheet models, that insolation and internal feedbacks between the climate, the ice sheets and the lithosphere–asthenosphere system explain the 100,000-year periodicity. The responses of equilibrium states of ice sheets to summer insolation show hysteresis, with the shape and position of the hysteresis loop playing a key part in determining the periodicities of glacial cycles. The hysteresis loop of the North American ice sheet is such that after inception of the ice sheet, its mass balance remains mostly positive through several precession cycles, whose amplitudes decrease towards an eccentricity minimum. The larger the ice sheet grows and extends towards lower latitudes, the smaller is the insolation required to make the mass balance negative. Therefore, once a large ice sheet is established, a moderate increase in insolation is sufficient to trigger a negative mass balance, leading to an almost complete retreat of the ice sheet within several thousand years. This fast retreat is governed mainly by rapid ablation due to the lowered surface elevation resulting from delayed isostatic rebound, which is the lithosphere–asthenosphere response. Carbon dioxide is involved, but is not determinative, in the evolution of the 100,000-year glacial cycles

Ancient marine sediment DNA reveals diatom transition in Antarctica

Antarctica is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change on Earth and studying the past and present responses of this polar marine ecosystem to environmental change is a matter of urgency. Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) analysis can provide such insights into past ecosystem-wide changes. Here we present authenticated (through extensive contamination control and sedaDNA damage analysis) metagenomic marine eukaryote sedaDNA from the Scotia Sea region acquired during IODP Expedition 382. We also provide a marine eukaryote sedaDNA record of ~1 Mio. years and diatom and chlorophyte sedaDNA dating back to ~540 ka (using taxonomic marker genes SSU, LSU, psbO). We find evidence of warm phases being associated with high relative diatom abundance, and a marked transition from diatoms comprising <10% of all eukaryotes prior to ~14.5 ka, to ~50% after this time, i.e., following Meltwater Pulse 1A, alongside a composition change from sea-ice to open-ocean species. Our study demonstrates that sedaDNA tools can be expanded to hundreds of thousands of years, opening the pathway to the study of ecosystem-wide marine shifts and paleo-productivity phases throughout multiple glacial-interglacial cycles

The Mid-Pliocene sea-level conundrum: Glacial isostasy, eustasy and dynamic topography

Determining eustatic sea level during the Mid-Pliocene warm period (~ 3.3 to 2.9 Ma) has been a central but elusive goal in the study of past warm climates. Estimates of eustatic sea level based on geologic data span a broad range; variation that we now recognize is due in part to geographically varying post-depositional displacement caused by glacial isostatic adjustment and dynamic topography. In this study, we combine field observations and glacial isostatic adjustment modeling to estimate the dynamic topography signal in three areas that are important to paleo-sea level studies of the Mid-Pliocene warm period (South Africa, West Australia and southeastern United States). We show that dynamic topography played a significant role in the post-depositional displacement of Pliocene, and even younger Pleistocene, shorelines. In this regard, we provide a robust paleo-sea level elevation data set, corrected for glacial isostatic adjustment, that can be used to evaluate predictions from mantle flow models of dynamic topography

Late Neogene chronology: New perspectives in high-resolution stratigraphy

We present an integrated geochronology for late Neogene time (Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene Epochs) based on an analysis of data from stable isotopes, magnetostratigraphy, radiochronology, and calcareous plankton biostratigraphy. Discrepancies between recently formulated astronomical chronologies and magnetochronologies for the past 6 m.y. have been resolved on the basis of new, high-precision Ar/Ar ages in the younger part of this interval, the so-called Brunhes, Matuyama, and Gauss Epochs (= Chrons C1n-C2An; 0-3.58 Ma), and revised analysis of sea floor anomalies in the Pacific Ocean in the older part, the so-called Gilbert Epoch (= Chron C2Ar-C3r; 3.58-5.89 Ma). The magneto- and astrochronologies are now concordant back to the Chron C3r/C3An boundary at 5.89 Ma. The Neogene (Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene) and Paleogene are treated here as period/system subdivisions of the Cenozoic Era/Erathem, replacements for the antiquated terms Tertiary and Quaternary. The boundary between the Miocene and Pliocene Series (Messinian/Zanclean Stages), whose global stratotype section and point (GSSP) is currently proposed to be in Sicily, is located within the reversed interval just below the Thvera (C3n.4n) Magnetic Polarity Subchronozone with an estimated age of 5.32 Ma. The Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary, whose GSSP is located at Vrica (Calabria, Italy), is located near the top of the Olduvai (C2n) Magnetic Polarity Subchronozone with an estimated age of 1.81 Ma. The 13 calcareous nannoplankton and 48 planktonic foraminiferal datum events for the Pliocene, and 12 calcareous nannoplankton and 10 planktonic foraminiferal datum events for the Pleistocene, are calibrated to the newly revised late Neogene astronomical/geomagnetic polarity time scale

Higher than present global mean sea level recorded by an Early Pliocene intertidal unit in Patagonia (Argentina)

Reconstructions of global mean sea level from earlier warm periods in Earth?s history can helpconstrain future projections of sea level rise. Here we report on the sedimentology and age ofa geological unit in central Patagonia, Argentina, that we dated to the Early Pliocene(4.69?5.23 Ma, 2σ) with strontium isotope stratigraphy. The unit was interpreted as representativeof an intertidal environment, and its elevation was measured with differential GPS atca. 36m above present-day sea level. Considering modern tidal ranges, it was possible toconstrain paleo relative sea level within ±2.7m (1σ). We use glacial isostatic adjustmentmodels and estimates of vertical land movement to calculate that, when the Camaronesintertidal sequence was deposited, global mean sea level was 28.4 ± 11.7m (1σ) above present.This estimate matches those derived from analogous Early Pliocene sea level proxies inthe Mediterranean Sea and South Africa. Evidence from these three locations indicates thatEarly Pliocene sea level may have exceeded 20m above its present level. Such high globalmean sea level values imply an ice-free Greenland, a significant melting of West Antarctica,and a contribution of marine-based sectors of East Antarctica to global mean sea level.Fil: Rovere, Alessio. Universitat Bremen; AlemaniaFil: Pappalardo, Marta. Universidad de Pisa; ItaliaFil: Richiano, Sebastián Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto Patagónico de Geología y Paleontología; ArgentinaFil: Aguirre, Marina Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; ArgentinaFil: Sandstrom, Michael R.. Columbia University; Estados UnidosFil: Hearty, Paul J.. University of Texas at Austin; Estados UnidosFil: Austermann, Jacqueline. Columbia University; Estados UnidosFil: Castellanos, Ignacio. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Raymo, Maureen E.. Columbia University; Estados Unido