Ongoing Multi-method Investigations of Last Interglacial Sea Level

Abstract

Presented at the "X Young Geomorphologists’ Day, III IAG International Young Geomorphologists’ Meeting & IAG Southern Europe Webinar – Venice 1-2 March 2024"Silas Dean1, Denovan Chauveau1, Ciro Cerrone1, Nikos Georgiou1, D.D.Ryan2, Karla Rubio Sandoval3, Alessio Rovere11Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy2Department of Earth Sciences, University of Pisa, Italy3MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, GermanyKeywords: Sea level change, climate change, last interglacial, MIS 5e, reef modelling, storm eventsThe Last Interglacial (LIG, Marine Isotope Stage 5e, ~125 ka) is a process analogue for a future warmer climate. Thousands of coastal relic landforms and deposits dating back to this period are studied today to obtain insights on pressing questions such as: What was the peak LIG sea level? Was the highstand characterised by single or multiple peaks? Were rapid sea-level changes triggered by sudden ice sheet collapses? The WARMCOASTS project has already compiled a large database of LIG sea-level proxies in the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS), and investigation is also continuing using a number of methods including coral reef stratigraphic forward modelling, storm event and wave modelling, and field surveys for sea-level indicators in South and North America and the Caribbean. The results of this ongoing research may help refine our understanding of ice sheets and sea levels under warmer climate conditionsReferencesChauveau, D., Georgiou, N., Cerrone, C., Dean, S., & Rovere, A. (2024). Sea-level oscillations within the Last Interglacial: insights from coral reef stratigraphic forward modelling. https://doi.org/10.31223/X59T1VGowan, E. J., Rovere, A., Ryan, D. D., Richiano, S., Montes, A., Pappalardo, M., & Aguirre, M. L. (2020). Last interglacial (MIS 5e) sea-level proxies in southeastern South America. Earth System Science Data Discussions, 2020, 1-40.Pastier, A. M., Husson, L., Pedoja, K., Bézos, A., Authemayou, C., Arias‐Ruiz, C., & Cahyarini, S. Y. (2019). Genesis and architecture of sequences of Quaternary coral reef terraces: Insights from numerical models. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 20(8), 4248-4272.Rubio-Sandoval, K., Rovere, A., Cerrone, C., Stocchi, P., Lorscheid, T., Felis, T., ... & Ryan, D. D. (2021). A review of last interglacial sea-level proxies in the western Atlantic and southwestern Caribbean, from Brazil to Honduras. Earth System Science Data, 13(10), 4819-4845.Rovere, A., Ryan, D. D., Vacchi, M., Dutton, A., Simms, A. R., & Murray-Wallace, C. V. (2022). The world atlas of last interglacial shorelines (version 1.0). Earth System Science Data Discussions, 2022, 1-37.</p