Sea-level history of the past two interglacial periods: new evidence from U-series dating of reef corals from south Florida

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

“…5). Also shown for comparison are (a) measured values of fossil corals (also Balanophyllia elegans) from the lowest two marine terraces on western San Nicolas Island (data from Muhs et al, 2006) and (b) measured values from fossil corals of the Key Largo Limestone, Florida (data from Muhs et al, 2011). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)…”

“…In order to provide the best estimate of the magnitude of paleo-sea level at~120 ka for the present study, measurements from tectonically stable parts of North America are considered here. Muhs et al (2011) report reef elevation measurements of þ3 m to þ5 m and therefore derive paleo-sea level estimates of þ6 m to þ8 m (assuming water depths of at least 3 m) for the~120 ka Key Largo Limestone of the Florida Keys, an island chain found in a tectonically stable region of North America. Closer to the Channel Islands, marine deposits on Isla Guadalupe, off Baja California (Fig.…”

“…Another possibility is that late Quaternary uplift of San Miguel Island, Santa Rosa Island, and Santa Cruz Island was extremely slow or nonexistent until the LGM. In this scenario, a terrace dating to~120 ka would form at þ6 m, relative to present (Kopp et al, 2009;Muhs et al, 2011;Dutton and Lambeck, 2012), remain at this elevation for 100 ka, and then experience uplift at a rate of 0.9 m/ka for the past~23 ka (using the most conservative uplift rate presented by Chaytor et al (2008)). Such a terrace would now be at an elevation of~27 m. This value is only slightly higher than the observed terrace shoreline angle elevations on San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands, indicating that in principle, such a sequence of events is possible.…”

Late Quaternary sea-level history and the antiquity of mammoths (Mammuthus exilisandMammuthus columbi), Channel Islands National Park, California, USA

“…Because the 2nd terrace near Cañada Garañon is likely~120 ka ( Fig. 5c; Table 2) and paleo-sea level at that time was about + 6 m (Muhs et al, 2002a(Muhs et al, , 2011, the shoreline angle elevation (+24 m) yields a relatively low uplift rate of 0.15 m/ka for this part of Santa Rosa Island. Thus, if the Red Sea and Cocos Ridge records constitute at least firstorder approximations of Quaternary sea level fluctuations, and if the estimates of modest late Quaternary uplift rates for the northern Channel Islands are correct, the distance from mainland California to the eastern end of an ancient Santarosae island during MIS 8 or MIS 6 likely would have been only slightly greater than during MIS 4 or MIS 2.…”

Sensitivity of Red Sea circulation to sea level and insolation forcing during the last interglacial

“…Sea-level reconstructions suggest that during termination II, sea level rose in two steps with similar rates as during termination I (Siddall et al, 2003(Siddall et al, , 2006Rohling et al, 2008b), reaching a mean level at 4-6 m above the present, with potential peaks up to 8 ± 1 m (Plaziat et al, 1995;McCulloch and Esat, 2000;Orszag-Sperber et al, 2001;Siddall et al, 2006;Rohling et al, 2008b;Kopp et al, 2009;Muhs et al, 2011). As a consequence of the strong summer insolation, intensified monsoonal conditions with levels of rainfall exceeding that observed during the corresponding early Holocene insolation maximum are recorded from regions reflecting the African Monsoon (Rossignol-Strick, 1983;Rohling et al, 2004;Weldeab et al, 2007), the Asian Monsoon (Wu et al, 2002;Chen et al, 2003;Yuan et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2008), and the Indian Monsoon (Van Campo et al, 1982;Clemens et al, 1991).…”