Rapid sea-level fall and deep-ocean temperature change since the last interglacial period

Coastal tectonics on the eastern margin of the Pacific Rim: late Quaternary sea-level history and uplift rates, Channel Islands National Park, California, USA

“…A major question that arises in these observations is that based on sea level history from uplifted reefs on New Guinea and Barbados, paleo-sea levels during the high-sea stands at~80 ka and 100 ka are estimated to be À15 m to À20 m, relative to present (Chappell and Shackleton, 1986;Bard et al, 1990;Cutler et al, 2003;Potter et al, 2004;Thompson and Goldstein, 2005; see also Murray-Wallace and Woodroffe (2014), pp. 288e292).…”

Dominant Northern Hemisphere climate control over millennial-scale glacial sea-level variability

“…We established a separate sea-level-d 18 O w relationship for each d 18 O w record (from the two temperature scenarios) by using coral-based sea-level data (i.e., Fairbanks, 1989;Chappell, 2002;Cutler et al, 2003;Thompson and Goldstein, 2005) as constraints (Fig. 4).…”

“…; Chappell, 2002;Cutler et al, 2003), the MIS 4 low stand ($85 m b.s.l. ; Chappell, 2002;Cutler et al, 2003), and the LGM low stand ($125 m b.s.l.…”

“…Further back in the glacial, the coral-based data set becomes more incomplete and the reliably dated sea-level points, though showing the general amplitude of sea-level changes, are insufficient to establish the exact pattern and timing of millennial-scale changes (Chappell, 2002;Cutler et al, 2003). Alternatively, sea-level information can be derived from oxygen isotope (d 18 O) records of benthic foraminifera that appear to show a global signal as a similar style of variability has been observed in different ocean basins (Shackleton et al, 2000;Pahnke and Zahn, 2005).…”

Late Pleistocene gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) offshore Georgia, U.S.A., and the antiquity of gray whale migration in the North Atlantic Ocean

“…The strong differences in Plio-Pleistocene climatic eustatic sea-level change models (Stocker and Marchal, 2000;Müller et al, 2008;Rohling et al, 2009) show a wide range of possible sea-level ranges during the late Pleistocene. While some models show sea-level at JY Reef to be very similar to that of today (Chabreck, 1988), others show JY Reef to be a dry land (Dodge et al, 1983;Cutler et al, 2003). In all likelihood, based on current models, we think that JY Reef was a shallow shell bed, located very near the shore at the times that the two gray whales died.…”