middle and late holocene sea levels along the israel mediterranean coast evidence from ancient water wells during the course of a study of historical water wells along the israeli shore which has been in progress since 1984 an innovative method for investigating sea level fluctuations was developed eighteen ancient water wells were re dug 14 by the author and four by archaeologists most of the re dug wells are found at archaeological sites located a very short distance inland from the present shoreline evidence of ancient ground water levels found in the wells directly reflects on historic eustatic sea level changes and the rate at which the end of the post glacial transgression advanced a critical question concerns the durability and life span of these wells as the true age is very important for the accurate reconstruction of a sea level curve the pre pottery neolithic well of atlit yam which is the oldest known well in the world ca 8000 yr old enabled the most accurate sea level reconstruction for early holocene times sea level rise during that period of the atlit yam site was of the order of 20 mm yr 1 at the beginning slowing to 6 8 mm yr 1 at the abandonment of this site at ca 7 5 ka bp when it was flooded by the advancing and rising sea after reaching its present level sea level fluctuations for the past 2 5 millennia were not greater than 1 5 to 2 m 1997 john wiley sons ltd

holocene sea level changes along the mediterranean coast of israel based on archaeological observations and numerical model local sea level curves reflect global eustatic changes regional isostatic adjustments of the crust to changing ice and ocean volumes and tectonically controlled crustal movements in this study we evaluate the relative contribution of each of these factors to the holocene sea level curve of the mediterranean coast of israel we use archaeological data as constraints on palaeo sea levels and we then compare the observational limits with isostatic models for sea level change across the region the isostatic model includes the contribution arising from the relative minor increase in ocean volumes for the past 6000 years due to residual melting of ice sheets the effect of the changing shape of the ocean basin the time dependence of shorelines as sealevel changes and the changing surface area occupied by ice sheets differences if significant between the observed and predicted change are interpreted as being of tectonic origin the archaeological observations and the model sea level curve along the mediterranean coast of israel were found to be generally consistent and any discrepancies lie within the uncertainties of both values our model predicted that 8000 years ago sea level at the israel coast was at about 213 5 2 m whereas the archaeological data place it at 216 5 1 m by 7000 bp the predicted level has risen to about 27 1 m consistent with the archaeological evidences according to both observations and predictions sea level was still lower than 2 3t o24 5 m at 6000 bp and remained below its present level until about 3000 2000 bp the comparison between the model sea level curve and the archaeological observations also enable to conclude that the average rate of vertical tectonic movement for the last 8000 years at the carmel coast israel has been less than 0 2 mm year q 2001 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

identifying the causes of sea level change global mean sea level change has increased from a few centimetres per century over recent millennia to a few tens of centimetres per century in recent decades a review of the latest work shows that global mean sea level rise is unlikely to exceed one metre over the twenty first century but regional departures from this global mean could reach several decimetres

persistent positive north atlantic oscillation mode dominated the medieval climate anomaly the medieval climate anomaly mca was the most recent pre industrial era warm interval of european climate yet its driving mechanisms remain uncertain we present here a 947 year long multidecadal north atlantic oscillation nao reconstruction and find a persistent positive nao during the mca supplementary reconstructions based on climate model results and proxy data indicate a clear shift to weaker nao conditions into the little ice age lia globally distributed proxy data suggest that this nao shift is one aspect of a global mca lia climate transition that probably was coupled to prevailing la nina like conditions amplified by an intensified atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the mca

a 10 000 year high resolution diatom record from pilkington bay lake victoria east africa a new diatom record from lake victoria s pilkington bay subsampled at 21 to 25 year intervals and supported by 20 ams dates reveals a 10 000 calendar year environmental history that is supported by published diatom and pollen data from two nearby sites with their chronologies adjusted here to account for newly documented ancient carbon effects in the lake these three records provide a coherent finely resolved reconstruction of holocene climate change in equatorial east africa after an insolation induced rainfall maximum ca 8800 8300 cal yr b p precipitation became more seasonal and decreased abruptly ca 8200 and 5700 yr b p in apparent association with northern deglaciation events century scale rainfall increases occurred ca 8500 7000 5800 and 4000 yr b p conditions after 2700 yr b p were generally similar to those of today but major droughts occurred ca 1200 600 yr b p during europe s medieval warm period

vegetation response to rainfall variation and human impact in central kenya during the past 1100 years pollen data from a 625 cm sediment core from crescent island crater a subbasin of lake naivasha kenya provide an 1100 year record of vegetation change at a mean time resolution of 15 years earlier data from the same core show a record of lake depth and thus inferred rainfall variation in the form of changing sedimentary facies supported by salinity inferences based on diatom and chironomid assemblages stratigraphic variation in the abundances of aquatic and semi aquatic plants and chlorophyte algae generally supports the reconstructed lake depths woody afromontane and woodland plant taxa decreased relative to poaceae grasses during low rainfall periods and increased during high rainfall periods a decrease in the extent of lower montane forest coincident with favourable climatic conditions after about ad 1700 was probably caused by kikuyu immigration and population expansion around that time as indicated by simultaneous appearance of the food crop zea mays maize increases in ruderal herbaceous and exotic tree pollen during the twentieth century indicate increased local landscape disturbance during the colonial period there is little direct pollen evidence for accelerating clearance of the montane forest during recent decades

structural geological evidence from odp leg 131 regarding fluid flow in the nankai prism japan abstract the fluid flow regime of accretionary prisms influences their morphology and dynamics and is closely interrelated with deformation for example the lesser antilles prism shows drainage principally along channels provided by tectonic structures such as thrusts and the basal decollement a similar behaviour has been suggested for the nankai prism and this was investigated during odp leg 131 coring at site 808 penetrated the entire prism and underthrust sediments and allowed detailed documentation of structures seen in the cores however neither the frontal thrust nor the decollement show any visible sign of channelised fluid flow no veins mineralised surfaces or clastic dykes were observed the single clastic dyke seen within the prism appears unrelated to a deformation zone on the other hand small scale structures such as faults and deformation bands are unusually numerous in the nankai prism and colour and diagenetic changes within them suggest that they may have acted as micro conduits for drainage further contrasts with other prisms are shown by the sequence of deformation at nankai and the relative paucity of deformation in the underthrust material therefore the tectonic and fluid flow regime at site 808 differs from the expected pattern marked increase in porosity immediately below the decollement hints at overpressuring in this zone but the structures show no record of localised fluid activity the structural geological observations throughout the nankai prism are more consistent with bulk pervasive dewatering perhaps utilising the abundant deformation microstructures

late holocene lake levels of the dead sea this work presents a high resolution lake level record of the late holocene dead sea a hypersaline terminal lake whose drainage basin encompasses both mediterranean and hyperarid climatic zones the lake level curve reflects the regional hydrologic variations in the drainage basin which in turn represent the levant paleoclimates the curve is based on 46 radiocarbon ages of organic remains from well exposed sedimentary sequences along the dead sea shores these sequences record fluvial and lacustrine depositional environments the paleolakeshores are marked by shore ridges coarse sand units and aragonite crusts in the modern dead sea such features indicate the exact elevation of the shore the late holocene dead sea level fluctuated within the range of 390 to 415 m below sea level mbsl for most of the time the lake was below the topographic sill 402 mbsl separating the northern and southern basins of the dead sea and was confined to the deep northern basin nevertheless short term rises in the late holocene dead sea level caused the flooding of the shallow and flat southern basin highstands occurred in the second and first centuries b c and the fourth century a d during the roman and early byzan tine periods respectively in the eleventh and twelfth centuries a d during the crusader period and at the end of the nineteenth century a d the rises mark a significant change in the annual rainfall in the region which likely exceeded the instrumentally measured modern average the curve also indicates drastic drops that exposed the sedimentary sequences to erosion the oldest and probably deepest drop in the lake level culminated during the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries b c after a retreat from a higher lake stand the longest lowstand occurred after the byzantine period and continued at least until the ninth century a d this arid period coincided with the invasion of moslem arab tribes into the area during the seventh century a d the dramatic fall of the dead sea level during the twentieth century is primarily artificial and has been caused by the diversion of runoff water for the drainage basin but the magnitude is not considered exceptional for the late holocene although the past drops in the lake never exceeded the modern artificial drop rates they do represent extreme arid conditions that occurred frequently over the past several thousand years

sea level change and vertical land movements since the last two millennia along the coasts of southwestern turkey and israel abstract this paper provides new relative sea level data inferred from coastal archaeological sites located along the turkish coasts of the gulf of fethye 8 sites and israel between akziv and caesarea 5 sites the structures selected are those that for effective functioning can be accurately related to sea level at the time of their construction thus their positions with respect to present sea level provide a measure of the relative sea level change since their time of construction useful information was obtained from the investigated sites spanning an age range of 2 3 1 6 ka bp the inferred changes in relative sea level for the two areas are distinctly different from a rise of 2 41 to 4 50 m in turkey and from 0 to 0 18 m in israel sea level change is the combination of several processes including vertical tectonics glacio hydro isostatic signals associated with the last glacial cycle and changes in ocean volume for the israel section the present elevations of the mis 5 5 tyrrhenian terraces occur at a few meters above present sea level and vertical tectonic displacements are small data from gps and tide gauge measurements also indicate that any recent vertical movements are small the mis 5 5 shorelines are absent from the investigated section of the turkish coast consistent with crustal subsidence associated with the hellenic arc the isostatic signals for the israel section of the coast are also small ranging from 0 11 mm yr to 0 14 mm yr depending on site and earth model and the observed eustatic average sea level change corrected for this contribution is a rise of 13 5 2 6 cm during the past 2 ka this is attributed to the time integrated contribution to sea level from a combination of thermal expansion and other increases in ocean volume the observed sea levels from the turkish sites in contrast indicate a much greater rise of up to 2 2 mm yr since 2 3 ka bp occurring in a wide area between knidos and kekova the isostatic signal here is also one of a rising sea level of up to 1 mm yr and site and earth model dependent and the corrected tectonic rate of land subsidence is 1 48 mm yr this is the primary cause of dramatic relative sea level rise for this part of the coast

oscillatory modes of extended nile river records a d 622 1922 1 the historical records of the low and high water levels of the nile river are among the longest climatic records that have near annual resolution there are few gaps in the first part of the records a d 622 1470 and larger gaps later a d 1471 1922 we apply advanced spectral methods singular spectrum analysis ssa and the multi taper method mtm to fill the gaps and to locate interannual and interdecadal periodicities the gap filling uses a novel iterative version of ssa our analysis reveals several statistically significant features of the records a nonlinear data adaptive trend that includes a 256 year cycle a quasi quadriennial 4 2 year and a quasi biennial 2 2 year mode as well as additional periodicities of 64 19 12 and most strikingly 7 years the quasi quadriennial and quasi biennial modes support the long established connection between the nile river discharge and the el nino southern oscillation enso phenomenon in the indo pacific ocean the longest periods might be of astronomical origin the 7 year periodicity possibly related to the biblical cycle of lean and fat years seems to be due to north atlantic influences

quaternary stratigraphy and paleogeography of the galilee coastal plain israel the quaternary deposits in the galilee coastal plain comprise alternating calcareous sandstone red loam dark clay and uncemented sand the calcareous sandstone in the lower part of the sequence represents a pliocene to early pleistocene marine transgression and is covered unconformably by the late quaternary sequence the base of this sequence has an estimated age of 500 000 yr it is covered unconformably by marine calcareous sandstone in the west which represents the global high sea level stand of isotope stage 7 1 and is known as one of the tyrrhenian events in the mediterranean area the overlying members represent the low sea level stand of stage 6 the first a red paleosol indicating a relatively wet phase and the second an eolianite unit representing a drier phase the eolianite forms longitudinal subparallel ridges that formed contemporaneously the overlying marine sandstone which contains one of the diagnostic fossils of the tyrrhenian events the gastropodstrombus buboniuslmk accumulated during the global high stand of stage 5 5 the last glacial period left no sedimentary record the holocene is represented by a marine clay unit that is covered by sand the present study establishes a complete and detailed chronostratigraphic sequence for an eastern mediterranean beach which contains the gastropods buboniuslmk s buboniuson the galilee coast is attributed to stage 5 5 and therefore establishes an east west mediterranean correlation which can be used for linking mediterranean events to paleo sea levels and global climate changes

high rates of sea level rise during the last interglacial period sea level during the last interglacial stood at least 4 m higher than at present with evidence of short term fluctuations of up to 10 m a new continuous sea level record from the red sea and coral ages suggest that during these fluctuations sea level changes were on the order of 1 6 m per century

sea level in roman time in the central mediterranean and implications for recent change instrumental records indicate that ocean volumes during the 20th century have increased so as to raise eustatic sea level by f1 2 mm year and the few available records suggest that this is higher than for the previous century geological data indicate that ocean volumes have increased since the main phase of deglaciation about 7000 years ago but whether this continued into the recent past remains unclear yet this is important for establishing whether the recent rise is associated with global warming or is part of a longer duration non anthropogenic signal here we present results for sea level change in the central mediterranean basin for the roman period using new archaeological evidence these data provide a precise measure of local sea level of 1 35f0 07 m at 2000 years ago part of this change is the result of ongoing glacio hydro isostatic adjustment of the crust subsequent to the last deglaciation when corrected for this using geologically constrained model predictions the change in eustatic sea level since the roman period is 0 13f0 09 m a comparison with tide gauge records from nearby locations and with geologically constrained model predictions of the glacio isostatic contributions establishes that the onset of modern sea level rise occurred in recent time at f100f53 years before present d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

archaeological remains as sea level change markers a review abstract the mediterranean sea constitutes a unique basin from an historical and archaeological point of view as it has been a privileged way of communication for thousands of years for the people that dwelled on its shores their passage has left many traces on the seabeds in the areas where the ancient commercial routes passed and remains of structures where moorings havens or dwellings existed some of these structures nowadays submerged offer interesting indications aiding the reconstruction of the ancient coastlines this contribution aims to examine recent work in coastal geo archaeology targeting both 1 gathering and discussion of the data particularly those pertaining to the italian coasts and 2 commentary on the methodological debate and verification of the possibility of a protocol that may contain unequivocal referring elements to investigate the archaeological evidence currently underwater because of the relative sea level variations harbour infrastructures fishponds villae maritimae caves nymphaei private or public buildings or town quarters pre and protohistorical villages quarries caves etc a clear and more coherent methodological assumption may be needed the archaeological interpretation must initially establish the maritime and or harbour nature and vocation of the site determine its typology and specific usage analyze the elements of its building techniques that reveal themselves as meaningful markers of height or depth at the time of building and its functional elements the measure of the emerged part with respect to the average sea level and point out the time of construction its chronological range of usage frequentation the dynamics of its abandonment destruction obliteration the evaluation of both the height and functional depth to the mean sea level depends on the typology of the archaeological evidence its use and the local tide amplitudes the surface of a pier surely has a functional elevation different from that of a haulage area or a platea or a pavement

evidence for centennial scale sea level variability during the medieval climate optimum crusader period in israel eastern mediterranean the current study provides evidence supporting a sea level drop of up to about 50 20 cm at the eastern coasts of the mediterranean basin during the period ad 900 1300 the estimate is based on a variety of archaeological remains mostly from the crusader period compared with other archaeological and biological proxies of sea level from the periods before and after the crusader low levels overlap the period known as the medieval warm period mwp or the medieval climate anomaly mca on the basis of published data it appears that a positive north atlantic oscillation nao phase coincided with a negative southern oscillation index soi the former affecting the temperature and freshwater flux in the mediterranean sea and most of its rivers and the latter affecting the nile outflow changes of 0 125 psu in salinity and 0 4 c are estimated as upper limits for the change and these are expected to cause a sea level drop consistent in magnitude with the observed values these provide the upper limit for a regional climate forcing attribution of the observed sea level low the possibility of crustal uplifts contributing to the observed changes is also discussed

decadal periodicities of nile river historical discharge a d 622 1470 and climatic implications the roda nilometer cairo egypt has recorded more than 2 000 gauge readings i e annual low water and flood levels from a d 622 to the beginning of this century spectral analysis of the a d 622 1470 data set yields several statistically significant periodicities for both low water 256 75 9 52 6 38 28 9 20 9 18 5 and 13 4 yr and flood levels 75 9 33 6 21 4 14 7 13 7 9 7 and 8 1 yr evolutionary multi taper method analysis suggests that shifts or disappearances of spectral peaks occur in sub intervals of the studied time span this is noticeable for the low frequency peaks in the sub interval a d similar to 950 similar to 1250 which corresponds to the medieval warm period in europe by contrast a remarkable time stability is observed for the 5 yr period that could confirm the existence of a robust enso like forcing during the studied period

decadal variability of sea surface temperatures off north iceland over the last 2000 years abstract ocean variability at decadal time scales remains poorly described partly because of the scarcity of high temporal resolution marine records here we present a reconstruction of sea surface temperatures ssts over the past two millennia at unprecedented temporal resolution 2 to 5 years from a marine core located off north iceland alkenone paleothermometry was used to infer sst variability and tephrochronology to build the age model spectral analyses of the sst signal indicate intermittent 20 25 year oscillations with periods of strong and weak power that are likely reflecting the ocean response to wind forcing presumably the north atlantic oscillation nao warmer ssts and paleo magnetic proxy data between 1000 and 1350 year a d overlapping the medieval warm period mwp suggest enhanced heat transport across the denmark strait by the north icelandic irminger current niic this is in contrast with the subsequent period which includes the little ice age lia showing continuous cooling towards the 20th century reduced niic flow through the denmark strait likely resulting from higher freshwater and sea ice export from the arctic would account for the observed colder conditions

a high resolution late holocene lake isotope record from turkey and links to north atlantic and monsoon climate a high resolution proxy record of precipitation and evaporation variability through the past 1700 yr from 18o analysis of a varved lake sequence from central turkey shows rapid shifts between dry periods ad 300 500 and ad 1400 1950 and wetter intervals ad 560 750 and ad 1000 1350 changes are consistent with changes in instrumental and proxy records of the indian monsoon dry summers in the eastern mediterranean being associated with periods of enhanced monsoon rainfall in addition major shifts in the record are coherent with changes in north atlantic winter climate with cold wet periods in the alps occurring at times of dry turkish climate

sea level changes since the last glacial maximum an appraisal of the ipcc fourth assessment report the ipcc fourth assessment report ar4 stated that global sea level rose by about 120 m between the last glacial maximum lgm and 3 2 ka and did not rise again until the late 19th century a review of relevant literature demonstrates that the rise may have been larger by 10 15 m that the timing of stabilisation is poorly constrained within the last 7 ka bp and that the onset of modern rates of sea level rise is not synchronous and uniform across the globe the lgm lowstand as defined in the ar4 is based on the classic barbados sea level history but the sea level curve from this island may not be an accurate eustatic approximation if glacial isostatic adjustment gia processes were significant as suggested by various authors the barbados sea level curve revealed the existence of meltwater pulse mwp 1a at around 14 000 cal a bp questions about the source and causal mechanism of mwp 1a are still being explored by field scientists and gia modellers these problems have direct relevance for contemporary measurements of ice mass changes because space geodetic measurements rely on information provided by gia models to separate land motion from ice mass changes global patterns of holocene sea level change are controlled by regional sea level variability not only through isostatic and tectonic processes but also through steric effects longer wavelength gravitational changes produced by changing ice ocean mass flux and hemispheric scale perturbations in the earth s rotation eustasy is therefore merely a concept not a measurable quantity constraining the late holocene ice melt contribution to global sea level rise and determining regional sea level rise patterns in the 18th and 19th centuries are important future tasks for sea level scientists these will establish the baseline contributions to 20th and 21st century sea level rise and will help to determine the causes of modern rates of sea level rise constraining historical sea level accelerations and short term ice mass flux will aid models of ice sheet dynamics and help to reduce current uncertainties in future sea level predictions the ar4 shows that regional sea level variability is clearly present in sea level change patterns for the past 50 a and an important challenge for the next ipcc assessment is to incorporate this variability into regional future sea level rise scenarios copyright 2009 john wiley sons ltd

historical landscape change in cappadocia central turkey a palaeoecological investigation of annually laminated sediments from nar lake coupled multiproxy indicators pollen stable isotopes and charcoal reconstructed from annually laminated lake sediments from nar ga la in cappadocia central turkey complemented by documentary and archaeological evidence provide a detailed record of environmental changes and their causes from late antiquity ad 300 to the present day stable isotope data indicate marked shifts in the variability in summer drought intensity and winter spring rainfall but these did not coincide in time with changes in vegetation and land use shown by pollen data rather human impacts appear to have been the main driver of landscape ecological changes in cappadocia over the last two millennia pollen and charcoal data indicate four principal land use phases i an early byzantine agrarian landscape characterized by cereals and tree crops and marking the later part of the so called beya ehir occupation phase ii a period of landscape abandonment and the establishment of secondary woodland from ad 670 to 950 coinc

holocene climate variability although the dramatic climate disruptions of the last glacial period have received considerable attention relatively little has been directed toward climate variability in the holocene 11 500 cal yr b p to the present examination of similar to50 globally distributed paleoclimate records reveals as many as six periods of significant rapid climate change during the time periods 9000 8000 6000 5000 4200 3800 3500 2500 1200 1000 and 600 150 cal yr b p most of the climate change events in these globally distributed records are characterized by polar cooling tropical aridity and major atmospheric circulation changes although in the most recent interval 600 150 cal yr b p polar cooling was accompanied by increased moisture in some parts of the tropics several intervals coincide with major disruptions of civilization illustrating the human significance of holocene climate variability c 2004 university of washington all rights reserved

late holocene climates of the near east deduced from dead sea level variations and modern regional winter rainfall the dead sea is a terminal lake of one of the largest hydrological systems in the levant and may thus be viewed as a large rain gauge for the region variations of its level are indicative of the climate variations in the region here we present the decadal to centennialresolution holocene lake level curve of the dead sea then we determine the regional hydroclimatology that affected level variations to achieve this goal we compare modern natural lake level variations and instrumental rainfall records and quantify the hydrology relative to lake level rise fall or stability to quantify that relationship under natural conditions rainfall data pre dating the artificial dead sea level drop since the 1960s are used in this respect jerusalem station offers the longest uninterrupted pre 1960s rainfall record and jerusalem rains serve as an adequate proxy for the dead sea headwaters rainfall principal component analysis indicates that temporal variations of annual precipitation in all stations in israel north of the current 200 mm yr 1 average isohyet during 1940 1990 are largely synchronous and in phase 70 of the total variance explained by pc1 this station also represents well northern jordan and the area all the way to beirut lebanon especially during extreme drought and wet spells we a determine the modern and propose the past regional hydrology and eastern mediterranean em climatology that affected the severity and length of droughts wet spells associated with multiyear episodes of dead sea level falls rises and b determine that em cyclone tracks were different in average number and latitude in wet and dry years in jerusalem the mean composite sea level pressure and 500 mb height anomalies indicate that the potential causes for wet and dry episodes span the entire em and are rooted in the larger scale northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation we also identified remarkably close association within radiocarbon resolution between climatic changes in the levant reflected by level changes and culture shifts in this region

siliciclastic carbonate sequences of miocene grabens of northern sardinia western mediterranean sea abstract the small crustal block of sardinia island western mediterranean underwent major rifting events during oligocene early miocene aquitanian early burdigalian and plio pleistocene times sedimentation in the resulting extensional and transtensional basins was affected by both local tectonic and worldwide sea level changes the mixed siliciclastic carbonate sequences which developed are readily comparable with those predicted by sequence stratigraphy this paper focuses on the post volcanic uppermost burdigalian to lower messinian sedimentation at the confluence between a main n s trending basin and a secondary sw ne trending graben in northern sardinia silty marlstones of late burdigalian early langhian age characterize the central part of the main basin whereas variable siliciclastic and carbonate sequences affected by up to three major transgression and regression cycles developed at its margins and at the confluence with the smaller graben differential movements along the main boundary fault led to rotation of blocks which localized narrow elongated offshore algal carbonate platforms low sea level stand led to deep erosion type 2 sequence boundary of these carbonates and to the formation of siliciclastic sandy lowstand wedges high sea level stand led to re establishment of algal platforms at the shelf margin which were bounded farther inland by siliciclastic carbonate mixed parasequences although it is not possible to date directly every stratigraphic unit local sequences are well structured and can be tentatively correlated with reported worldwide transgressive regressive events

large wind shift on the great plains during the medieval warm period spring summer winds from the south move moist air from the gulf of mexico to the great plains rainfall in the growing season sustains prairie grasses that keep large dunes in the nebraska sand hills immobile longitudinal dunes built during the medieval warm period 800 to 1000 years before the present record the last major period of sand mobility these dunes are oriented nw se and are composed of cross strata with bipolar dip directions the trend and structure of the dunes record a drought that was initiated and sustained by a historically unprecedented shift of spring summer atmospheric circulation over the plains moist southerly flow was replaced by dry southwesterly flow

constraints on hydrological and paleotemperature variations in the eastern mediterranean region in the last 140 ka given by the δd values of speleothem fluid inclusions abstract speleothem fluid inclusions potentially provide vital data on the paleohydrological conditions in glacial and interglacial periods we show here that d analyses of fluid inclusions from speleothems in three caves in the eastern mediterranean region israel provide a basis for understanding hydrological and temperature variations in the last 140 ka using measured d fluid inclusion values and temperature ranges constrained by the present day mediterranean meteoric water line mmwl and the global mwl we show a strong compatibility between the land and marine temperature records with the highest land temperatures occurring at 120 130 ka 17 22 c and the present 18 c and the lowest temperatures during the lgm about 10 c lower than present interglacial waters are constrained to follow the mmwl and most glacial waters also plot close to the mmwl with a slight shift towards the mwl however during two remarkable brief periods at the termination of the lgm the waters plot on the mwl suggesting that both sharp cooling and an increase in relative humidity above the em sea reduced d excess values to those of the global system

influence of glacial isostatic adjustment upon current sea level variations in the mediterranean abstract present day sea level variations in the mediterranean depend on various factors including recent climatic forcing tectonic activity anthropogenic effects and glacio isostatic adjustment the latter is governed by mantle rheology and the spatio temporal distribution of the late pleistocene ice sheets and it is expected to produce a long wavelength pattern of sea level variations across the mediterranean mostly determined by the response of the solid earth and of the geoid to loading effects of melt water since the end of deglaciation modeling glacio isostatic effects in this region is necessary for a correct interpretation of tide gauge and gps time series and thereby to constrain both the present day climate related sea level rise and regional or local geological tectonic and human driven displacements by an exhaustive exploration of the parameter space of mantle rheology and ice sheet chronologies in this work we outline upper and lower bounds on the current rate of sea level variation associated with glacial isostatic adjustment in the mediterranean this may contribute to a full assessment of coastal vulnerability by sea level rise on a regional and local scale

global glacial isostasy and the surface of the ice age earth the ice 5g vm2 model and grace abstract the 100 kyr quasiperiodic variation of continental ice cover which has been a persistent feature of climate system evolution throughout the most recent 900 kyr of earth history has occurred as a consequence of changes in the seasonal insolation regime forced by the influence of gravitational n body effects in the solar system on the geometry of earth s orbit around the sun the impacts of the changing surface ice load upon both earth s shape and gravitational field as well as upon sea level history have come to be measurable using a variety of geological and geophysical techniques these observations are invertible to obtain useful information on both the internal viscoelastic structure of the solid earth and on the detailed spatiotemporal characteristics of glaciation history this review focuses upon the most recent advances that have been achieved in each of these areas advances that have proven to be central to the construction of the refined model of the global process of glacial isos

beach deposits of mis 5e high sea stand as indicators for tectonic stability of the carmel coastal plain israel abstract ten beach deposits mainly beachrock on the carmel coastal plain northern israel are discussed six are reported for the first time the deposits are situated within or close to the following seasonal stream locally termed nahal channels nahal ahuza amiram ovadia galim megadim bir ibdawiya me arot and kebara the morphology and lithology of most of the deposits are similar their uppermost altitude varies from 0 to 9 m above the present sea level most of the deposits are composed mainly of fine quartz sand and marine mollusk shells carbonate cemented the dominant mollusk families are glycymerididae cardiidae and donacidae most of the beach deposits are situated between cemented aeolian sandstones locally termed kurkar layers on the carmel coast ridge in the nahal ahuza deposit a marine gastropod lentigo latus an index fossil for the mis 5e high sea stand in the mediterranean area was discovered according to lithology and chronostratigraphy the presence of lentigo latus th u aar and rtl dating and flint artifacts the beach deposits were related to the last interglacial maximum about 125 ka bp i e the mis 5e high sea stand these beach deposits are used to identify the palaeo sea levels and coastlines and to study the tectonics along the carmel coastal plain by comparing the elevations and characteristics of the beach deposits to known mis 5e deposits elsewhere and by analyzing archaeological data it is concluded that during the last 125 ka the maximum possible vertical displacement was less than 48 mm ka and the carmel coastal plain was relatively tectonically stable