revisiting tectonic corrections applied to pleistocene sea level highstands tectonic displacement contaminates estimates of peak eustatic sea level and equivalently minimum continental ice volumes determined from the elevation of quaternary interglacial highstand markers for sites at which a stratigraphic or geomorphic marker of peak marine isotope stage mis 5e sea level exists the standard approach for estimating local tectonic uplift or subsidence rates takes the difference between the elevation of the local highstand marker and a reference mis 5e eustatic value commonly chosen as 6 m and divides by the age of the marker the resulting rate is then applied to correct the elevation of all other local observed sea level markers for tectonic displacement including peak highstands of different ages e g mis 5a mis 5c and mis 11 under the assumption that the tectonic rate remained constant over those periods this approach introduces two potentially significant errors first the peak eustatic value adopted for mis 5e in most previous studies i e 6 m is likely incorrect second local peak sea level during mis 5e is characterized by significant departures from eustasy due to glacial isostatic adjustment in response to both successive glacial interglacial cycles and excess polar ice sheet melt relative to present day values we use numerical models of glacial isostatic adjustment that incorporate both of these effects to quantify the plausible range of the combined error and show that even at sites far from melting ice sheets local peak sea level during mis 5e may depart from eustasy by 2 4 m or more we also demonstrate that the associated error in the estimated tectonic rates can significantly alter previous estimates of peak eustatic sea level during quaternary highstands notably those associated with earlier interglacials e g mis 11

bipolar seesaw control on last interglacial sea level our current understanding of ocean atmosphere cryosphere interactions at ice age terminations relies largely on assessments of the most recent last glacial interglacial transition1 2 3 termination i t i but the extent to which t i is representative of previous terminations remains unclear testing the consistency of termination processes requires comparison of time series of critical climate parameters with detailed absolute and relative age control however such age control has been lacking for even the penultimate glacial termination t ii which culminated in a sea level highstand during the last interglacial period that was several metres above present4 here we show that heinrich stadial 11 hs11 a prominent north atlantic cold episode5 6 occurred between 135 1 and 130 2 thousand years ago and was linked with rapid sea level rise during t ii our conclusions are based on new and existing6 7 8 9 data for t ii and the last interglacial that we collate onto a single radiometrically constrained chronology the hs11 cold episode5 6 punctuated t ii and coincided directly with a major deglacial meltwater pulse which predominantly entered the north atlantic ocean and accounted for about 70 per cent of the glacial interglacial sea level rise8 9 we conclude that possibly in response to stronger insolation and co2 forcing earlier in t ii the relationship between climate and ice volume changes differed fundamentally from that of t i in t i the major sea level rise clearly post dates3 10 11 heinrich stadial 1 we also find that hs11 coincided with sustained antarctic warming probably through a bipolar seesaw temperature response12 and propose that this heat gain at high southern latitudes promoted antarctic ice sheet melting that fuelled the last interglacial sea level peak

distal tephra record for the last ca 105 000 years from core prad 1 2 in the central adriatic sea implications for marine tephrostratigraphy abstract core prad 1 2 located on the western flank of the mid adriatic deep contains a continuous sediment record extending back to upper mis 11 the upper part of the record which spans the mid holocene to mis 5 4 the last ca 105 000 years has been investigated for tephra content a total of 25 discrete tephra layers were discovered only one of which was visible in the core sequence the other 24 are not visible to the naked eye nor were the majority detected by routine down core scanning methods a total of 625 geochemical measurements obtained from individual glass shards using wds epma enabled 21 of the 25 tephras to be assigned to known volcanic events emanating from the campanian province campi flegrei somma vesuvius and ischia island the results provide an independent basis for establishing an age depth profile for the upper part of the prad 1 2 record this study demonstrates that the number of non visible tephra layers can significantly exceed the number of visible layers in some deep marine sequences routine testing for the presence of non visible tephra layers can therefore prove rewarding leading to the detection of additional isochrons for dating and correlating marine sequences and for their synchronisation with terrestrial records

aminostratigraphy of quaternary shorelines in the mediterranean basin the age and correlation of shorelines around the mediterranean basin have been addressed by analyzing the extent of isoleucine epimerization aile ile ratio in protein preserved in molluscan fossils collected from raised marine deposits the taxodont genera glycymeris and arca were selected as the primary taxa for this study because of their simple shell structure reproducible aile ile ratios and ubiquitous occurrence direct comparison of aile ile ratios in associated mollusks allows correlation of disjunct marine deposits and relative dating of sequential marine units in nearby areas that have similar thermal histories the thermal gradient across the mediterranean basin is however sufficiently high that shells from isochronous shorelines have significantly higher ratios at warmer than at cooler localities absolute dating primarily u series dates on corals directly associated with molluscan samples provides an independent calibration of the amino acid data and compensates for dissimilar thermal histories aile ile ratios in shells from 46 marine units cluster into 5 discrete groups c e f g and k that are related to positive sea level events interglacials interstadials associated with odd numbered deep sea isotopic stages the most complete sequences are in southern italy where group c ratios in glycymeris that average 0 30 are associated with the neotyrrhenian a post last interglacial late stage 5 high sea level event group e ratios 0 38 are associated with classical eutyrrhenian deposits from which four u series coral dates 126 7 ka substantiate the correlation to isotope substage 5e group f ratios 0 50 are associated with u series coral and mollusk dates between 200 and 300 ka the deposits are tentatively correlated with stage 7 deposits that have group g ratios 0 58 are correlated with stage 9 shells from lower pleistocene marine deposits that have ratios between 1 0 and 1 2 group k constrain the ages of the younger groups an exponential decrease in the epimerization rate inhibits resolution of the older events aile ile ratios in last interglacial deposits are similar in the northern and central region of the study area but increase sharply in southern sicily north africa and crete similar to the modern thermal gradient a lacuna between group g and group k is similar to gaps identified in california and alaska suggesting generally lower interglacial sea levels between stage 11 and sometime before the brunhes matuyama boundary

the role of ocean thermal expansion in last interglacial sea level rise 1 a compilation of paleoceanographic data and a coupled atmosphere ocean climate model were used to examine global ocean surface temperatures of the last interglacial lig period and to produce the first quantitative estimate of the role that ocean thermal expansion likely played in driving sea level rise above present day during the lig our analysis of the paleoclimatic data suggests a peak lig global sea surface temperature sst warming of 0 7 0 6 c compared to the late holocene our lig climate model simulation suggests a slight cooling of global average sst relative to preindustrial conditions sst 0 4 c with a reduction in atmospheric water vapor in the southern hemisphere driven by a northward shift of the intertropical convergence zone and substantially reduced seasonality in the southern hemisphere taken together the model and paleoceanographic data imply a minimal contribution of ocean thermal expansion to lig sea level rise above present day uncertainty remains but it seems unlikely that thermosteric sea level rise exceeded 0 4 0 3 m during the lig this constraint along with estimates of the sea level contributions from the greenland ice sheet glaciers and ice caps implies that 4 1 to 5 8 m of sea level rise during the last interglacial period was derived from the antarctic ice sheet these results reemphasize the concern that both the antarctic and greenland ice sheets may be more sensitive to temperature than widely thought

middle to late holocene relative sea level changes at puerto deseado patagonia argentina stratigraphic morphologic and radiocarbon data from puerto deseado coastal area santa cruz province argentina indicate that the holocene coastline formed in response to the discontinuous aggradation of coarse gravely beaches since c 6300 cal yr bp related to a progressive falling of relative sea level beach ridge crests crudely approximate to the sea level showing at least three steps of aggradation and relative sea level lowering two inactive abrasive notches at c 7 9 and 3 4 m a s l have recorded this sea level trend suggesting two important phases when sea level was stationary this allows the estimation of a rate of relative sea level fall in the last c 3500 years of c 1 8 mm yr moreover notches and morphological data indicate that the crest of the beach ridges exceeded the sea level height by c 2 0 5 m this value provides a reasonable regional estimate to be applied to produce comparable relative sea level curve for atlantic patagonia coast

the late mis 5 mediterranean tephra markers a reappraisal from peninsular italy terrestrial records abstract we present new tephrostratigraphic records from the late mis 5 ca 110 80 ka terrestrial sediments from southern and central italy on the one hand the central italy record consists of an outcropping lacustrine sequence from the sulmona intermountain basin that contains four trachytic phonolitic tephra layers pop3 pop2a pop2b pop1 all of which show a k alkaline affinity that is typical for the roman co magmatic province the pop3 and pop1 layers were dated by 40 ar 39 ar method at 106 2 1 3 ka 2 and 92 4 4 6 ka 2 respectively the sequence in southern italy on the other hand is represented by post tyrrhenian coastal deposits of the cilento area campania which contain two trachytic layers cil2 cil1 that show the same k alkaline affinity based on their chemical compositions and radiometric ages pop3 and pop1 are firmly correlated with the marine tephra layers x 5 105 2 ka and c 22 ca 90 ka which in turn match tephras tm 25 and tm 23 11 respectively in the lacustrine sequence of lago grande di monticchio southern italy of note the pop1 layer also matches the adriatic sea tephra prad 2517 that was previously correlated with the older x 5 layer the tephra couplet pop2a and pop2b ca 103 and 103 5 ka extrapolated ages are compatible with the tm 24b and tm 24 3 tephras in monticchio which match both the stratigraphic positions and the chemical compositions in the cilento area as well as the already described x 6 layer ca 108 ka cil2 we recognise a new stratigraphic superimposed layer cil1 that matches the pop3 tm 25 c 27 x 5 mediterranean marker s in summary the data presented here provide new chemical and 40 ar 39 ar chronological constraints towards a robust late mis 5 tephrostratigraphy of the central mediterranean although at the same time they also reveal how the tephrostratigraphy itself might be flawed when dealing with tephra markers that are not adequately constrained and characterised

uranium series dating of molluscs from uplifted holocene beaches in the persian gulf the study of coastal deformation and sea level history calls for radiometric ages on shorelines older than the past 20 000 yr the period for which reliable 14c ages can be obtained uranium series disequilibrium methods have yielded the requisite ages for reef coral ranging from 5 000 to 300 000 yr but previously have proved unreliable for most molluscs the major source of uncertainty being postmortem migration of uranium and its daughter radionuclides into and out of the shells in the present study the 230th 234u dating method1 was applied to molluscs from holocene beaches in the persian gulf which had been removed from marine influence by seismic uplift two specimens selected for comparative dating with the electron spin resonance esr method yielded ages of the correct order of magnitude excellent agreement was obtained between 14c and 230th 234u ages after detrital effects were corrected for by reference to modern comparative material for both calcitic and aragonitic specimens which suggests that uranium series dating of pre holocene molluscs may give reliable results provided the depositional history of the shoreline is well documented

an optimized scheme of lettered marine isotope substages for the last 1 0 million years and the climatostratigraphic nature of isotope stages and substages a complete and optimized scheme of lettered marine isotope substages spanning the last 1 0 million years is proposed lettered substages for marine isotope stage mis 5 were explicitly defined by shackleton 1969 but analogous substages before or after mis 5 have not been coherently defined short term discrete events in the isotopic record were defined in the 1980s and given decimal style numbers rather than letters but unlike substages they were neither intended nor suited to identify contiguous intervals of time substages for time outside mis 5 have been lettered or in some cases numbered piecemeal and with conflicting designations we therefore propose a system of lettered substages that is complete without missing substages and optimized to match previous published usage to the maximum extent possible our goal is to provide order and unity to a taxonomy and nomenclature that has developed ad hoc and somewhat chaotically over the decades our system is defined relative to the lr04 stack of marine benthic oxygen isotope records and thus it is grounded in a continuous record responsive largely to changes in ice volume that are inherently global this system is intended specifically for marine oxygen isotope stages but it has relevance also for oxygen isotope stages recognized in time series of non marine oxygen isotope data and more generally for climatic stages which are recognized in time series of non isotopic as well as isotopic data the terms stage and substage in this context are best considered to represent climatostratigraphic units and thus climatic stages and climatic substages because they are recognized from geochemical and sedimentary responses to climate change that may not have been synchronous at global scale

aerosol and fresh snow chemistry in the east rongbuk glacier on the northern slope of mt qomolangma everest 1 an intensive and simultaneous sampling for aerosol and fresh snow was conducted at repula col of the east rongbuk glacier near mt qomolangma during the late indian summer monsoon season in 2003 aerosol and snow chemistry including the species of na k mg2 ca2 cl so42 and no3 is analyzed and discussed anions account for a majority of the air quality and so42 is the most loaded species local emission by land weathering does not contribute significantly to the loading of mg2 and ca2 and their high concentration is related to their continental desert sources the meridional dynamic force of indian monsoon is efficient to the loading of na and na ca2 could be used to distinguish air masses of maritime or continental which dominate the air quality the signal of crustal so42 from central west asia or farther africa is weak and mixed sources anthropogenic and crustal of so42 dominate its loading in aerosol samples air snow scavenging ratios of these species are calculated and compared with the other results in some previous studies the scavenging ratio of so42 as the most heavily loaded species is around 200 which is comparable with that in greenland

palaeoenvironmental and palaeohydrological variability of mountain areas in the central mediterranean region a 190 ka long chronicle from the independently dated fucino palaeolake record central italy abstract proxy records of past climate change spanning beyond the radiocarbon range commonly derive their chronologies from orbital tuning strategies thus bounding our spatio temporal reconstructions to a priori assumptions that can not be directly tested here we present a tephrochronologically constrained framework of past environmental and climatic changes in the central mediterranean region during the last ca 190 ka our research is based on a high resolution multi proxy study of a sedimentary record cores f1 f3 retrieved from the fucino basin lacustrine succession central italy in 2015 we update the existing tephrostratigraphic framework of the f1 f3 record with the finding of the widespread campanian ignimbrite tephra marker layer and produce a robust and independent chronology based on new and published 40ar 39ar and 14c dating of 17 tephra layers observed palaeoenvironmental changes are tracked in other lacustrine marine and speleothem records across the mediterranean and north atlantic regions via tephrostratigraphic correlations and chronological matching providing a robust assessment of age uncertainties results show a complex interplay between local environmental changes and broad scale climatic processes highlighting a strong orbital forcing on glacial interglacial changes along with these major changes we detect prominent millennial scale variability during times of intermediate global ice volumes mediterranean mountain ecosystems oscillated around an interglacial state suggesting that climatic shifts although large did not exceed the local environmental tolerance resilience threshold conversely during periods of large global ice volume we observe subdued millennial scale variability with ecosystems operating in a strictly ruled glacial environment

ice sheet collapse following a prolonged period of stable sea level during the last interglacial sea level during the last interglacial period reached a peak of between 5 and 9 m above the present day level a detailed reconstruction of sea level and isostatic rebound from western australia indicates a prolonged period of sea level stability at 3 4 m above present followed by an abrupt sea level rise of 5 6 m

tephrochronology of core prad 1 2 from the adriatic sea insights into italian explosive volcanism for the period 200 80 ka core prad 1 2 located on the western flank of the mid adriatic deep was investigated for tephra content within the part of the sequence assigned on biostratigraphic and sapropel layer stratigraphy to mis 5 and 6 ca 80 200 ka bp a total of 11 discrete tephra layers are identified 8 visible and 3 cryptotephra layers 235 geochemical measurements obtained from individual glass shards using wds epma enabled 8 of the 11 tephras to be correlated to known eruption events 5 of which are represented in the lago grande di monticchio lgdm regional tephra archive sequence three of these layers are recognised ultra distally for the first time extending their known distributions approximately 210 km further north the results provide an independent basis for establishing an age depth profile for the mis 5 6 interval in the prad 1 2 marine record this approach allowed age estimates to be interpolated for the tephra layers that could not be correlated to known events it also provides an independent test of and support for the broad synchroneity of sapropel equivalent s e events in the adriatic sea with the better developed sapropel layers of the eastern mediterranean proposed by piva et al 2008a

late pleistocene paleoclimates and sea level change in the mediterranean as inferred from stable isotope and u series studies of overgrowths on speleothems mallorca spain abstract phreatic overgrowths on speleothems form at the surface of brackish pools which are present in many coastal caves of mallorca spain unlike common vadose speleothems formed in subaerial environments their occurrence directly identifies the height of the sea level at the time of the carbonate deposition because such pools are physically connected with the sea these deposits from the late pleistocene have recorded the same global variations in oxygen isotopes as planktonic and benthonic foraminifera corals and cave deposits a number of phreatic overgrowths on speleothems have been dated using the th u method in order to determine the position of the sea level during late quaternary the same samples as well as some subaerial speleothems have been analysed for 18 o 16 o and 13 c 12 c ratios the former samples allow the analysis of variations in sea water component in the brackish pools associated with glacio eustatic mediterranean fluctuations and the latter permit inferences concerning past continental climate changes some high sea stands have been recognized in correspondence with oxygen isotope stages ois 9 or older 7 5e 5c and 5a phreatic overgrowths on speleothems have also been formed during a colder phase ois 4 demonstrating that also in that period there were environmental conditions favourable for this kind of carbonate precipitation vadose crystallizations have recorded a cold period at 36 ka corresponding with the end of ois 3

millennial variability of rates of sea level rise in the ancient harbour of naples italy western mediterranean sea we reconstructed the late holocene relative sea level rsl evolution of the ancient harbour of naples one of the largest coastal conurbations in the mediterranean we carried out multiproxy investigations coupling archaeological evidence with biological indicators our data robustly constrain 2000 yr of non monotonic changes in sea level chiefly controlled by the complex volcano tectonic processes that characterize the area between 200 bc and ad 0 a subsidence rate of more than 1 5 mm yr enhanced the postglacial rsl rise while negligible or moderate land uplift 0 5 mm yr triggered a rsl stabilization during the roman period first five centuries ad this stabilization was followed by a post roman enhancement of the sea level rise when ground motion was negative attested by a subsidence rate of 0 5 to 1 mm yr our analysis seems to indicate very minor impacts of this nonmonotonic rsl evolution on the activities of the ancient harbour of naples which peaked from the third century bc to the second century ad after this period the progressive silting of the harbour basin made it impossible to safely navigate within the basin leading to the progressive decline of the harbour

sea level during the penultimate interglacial period based on a submerged stalagmite from argentarola cave italy accurate constraints are presented for the absolute age duration and sea level for the highstand corresponding to marine isotope stage mis 7 1 our work is based on a stalagmite collected in a currently submerged cave from italy argentarola cave flooding of this coastal cave is clearly marked within the stalagmite by a thick marine overgrowth of serpulid worms precise uranium thorium u th ages measured by thermal ionization mass spectrometry suggest that the stalagmite growth varied in phase with climate during mis 7 2 and mis 6 the penultimate glacial period in addition the period of marine transgression is bracketed between 202 and 190 kyr bp defining a mis 7 1 duration of 11 2 kyr comparison with previous studies provides a new constraint on the sea level during mis 7 1 that has approximately remained between 318 and 39 m relative to present sea level the timing of the mis 7 1 highstand is in full agreement with the specmap chronology which contrasts with the growing body of evidence showing a significant phase difference for mis 5 5 a tempting conclusion is that second order sea level highstands such as mis 7 1 may be purely driven by astronomical changes in contrast with major terminations such as termination ii atmospheric co2 levels may partly explain this contrast since the two sea level transitions mis 7 2 7 1 and mis 6 5 5 are characterized by very different co2 rises 20 vs 100 ppm fl 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

mantle dynamics in the mediterranean the mediterranean offers a unique opportunity to study the driving forces of tectonic deformation within a complex mobile belt lithospheric dynamics are affected by slab rollback and collision of two large slowly moving plates forcing fragments of continental and oceanic lithosphere to interact this paper reviews the rich and growing set of constraints from geological reconstructions geodetic data and crustal and upper mantle heterogeneity imaged by structural seismology we proceed to discuss a conceptual and quantitative framework for the causes of surface deformation exploring existing and newly developed tectonic and numerical geodynamic models we illustrate the role of mantle convection on surface geology a coherent picture emerges which can be outlined by two almost symmetric upper mantle convection cells the downwellings are found in the center of the mediterranean and are associated with the descent of the tyrrhenian and the hellenic slabs during plate convergence these slabs migrated backward with respect to the eurasian upper plate inducing a return flow of the asthenosphere from the backarc regions towards the subduction zones this flow can be found at large distance from the subduction zones and is at present expressed in two upwellings beneath anatolia and eastern iberia this convection system provides an explanation for the general pattern of seismic anisotropy in the mediterranean first order anatolia and adria microplate kinematics and may contribute to the high elevation of scarcely deformed areas such as anatolia and eastern iberia more generally the mediterranean is an illustration of how upper mantle small scale convection leads to intraplate deformation and complex plate boundary reconfiguration at the westernmost terminus of the tethyan collision

u series measurements in tyrrhenian deposits from mallorca further evidence for two last interglacial high sea levels in the balearic islands the campo de tiro type section for the tyrrhenian ecostratigraphic beds of the balearic islands shows four indurated littoral conglomerates and beach rocks unconformably superimposed the lower two units 1 and 2 are separated by a thin layer of reddish continental silts both contain a typical eutyrrhenian fauna whereas a neotyrrhenian fauna characterizes the overlying units 3 and 4 thu measurements by thermal ionisation mass spectrometry on mollusk shells from these deposits yielded ages of 135 ka unit 1 117 ka units 2 and 3 and a scatter of ages around 100 ka unit 4 the stratigraphic relationships and thu data indicate i that uranium was uptaken by mollusks shells but arca sp each time during a relatively short early diagenetic interval before cementation ensured a fair closure of the radioactive system ii two high sea stands characterized the last interglacial isotopic substage 5e of the balearic islands area iii the duration of this episode was 17 ka and iv the change in faunal assemblages and disconformity observed between units 2 and 3 are due to fluctuations in sea level and surface water conditions which occurred during the second high sea level episode of the last interglacial

an end to the last interglacial highstand before 120 ka relative sea level evidence from infreschi cave southern italy abstract the timing duration and evolution of sea level during the marine isotope stage 5e mis 5e highstand is a subject of intense debate a major problem in resolving this debate is the difficulty of chronologically constraining the sea level fall that followed the peak of the highstand this was mainly controlled by ice sheet dynamics the understanding of which is relevant for assessing future sea level behavior due to global warming here we use stratigraphical and geochoronological u th dating and tephra fingerprinting evidence from the infreschi archaeological cave marina di camerota southern italy to constrain relative sea level rsl evolution during the mis 5e highstand and younger stages uranium thorium dating of speleothem deposition phases places the maximum highstand rsl at 8 90 0 6 m a s l as indicated by the near horizontal upper limit of lithophaga boreholes measured for along a 3 5 km coastal cliff section geochronological data show that rsl fell more than 6 m before 120 ka suggesting a duration of the last interglacial highstand significantly shorter than proposed in some previous studies modelling shows that the rsl trend predicted by the ice 5g and ice 6g ice sheet simulations is consistent with our data but requires an additional significant reduction of both greenland and antarctic ice sheets to match the height of the local maximum highstand if no correction for tectonics is applied reconciling field data and models requires an earlier and likely shorter duration of the mis 5e highstand this suggests that our new data can constrain global ice volume variations during the penultimate deglaciation as well as glacial inception at the end of the last interglacial according to our chronology there is no local evidence of higher than present day sea levels after 120 ka

subsurface ice as a microbial habitat we determine the physicochemical habitat for microorganisms in subsurface terrestrial ice by quantitatively constraining the partitioning of bacteria and fluorescent beads 1 10 m between the solid ice crystals and the water filled veins and boundaries around individual ice crystals we demonstrate experimentally that the partitioning of spherical particles within subsurface ice depends strongly on size but is largely independent of source particle concentration although bacteria are shown consistently to partition to the veins larger particles which would include eukaryotic cells become trapped in the crystals with little potential for continued metabolism we also calculate the expected concentrations of soluble impurities in the veins for typical bulk concentrations found in natural ice these calculations and scanning electron microscope observations demonstrate a concentrated chemical environment 3 5 m total ions at 10 c in the veins where bacteria were found to reside with a mixture of impurities that could sustain metabolism our calculations show that typical bacterial cells in glacial ice would fit within the narrow veins which are a few micrometers across these calculations are confirmed by microscopic images of spherical 1 9 m diameter fluorescent beads and stained bacteria in subsurface veins typical bacterial concentrations in clean ice 102 103 cells ml would result in concentrations of 106 108 cells ml of vein fluid but occupy only a small fraction of the total available vein volume 0 2 hence bacterial populations are not limited by vein volume with the bulk of the vein being unoccupied and available to supply energy sources and nutrients

speleothem constraints on marine isotope stage mis 5 relative sea levels yucatan peninsula mexico rates of sea level fall at the termination of the last interglacial are poorly defined and archives from which sea level elevations are constrained during marine isotope stage mis 5 in the western north atlantic caribbean region are restricted spatially to a few key sites here growth periods of presently submerged but subaerially deposited speleothems from the yucatan peninsula south east mexico are dated using the 230 th 234 u multi collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric method the growth periods used to constrain maximum elevations of relative sea level are in agreement with glacio isostatic adjustment models for the near to intermediate region of the former north american ice sheets furthermore our data provide additional constraints on the timing of peak relative sea levels during mis 5a and 5c and the timing of the regression following the last interglacial highstand combining our data with coral archives of minimum relative sea level from the same region provides a novel approach to calculating the rate of relative sea level fall although initial estimates are poorly constrained because of the wide range in ages observed for the most suitable corals copyright 2013 john wiley sons ltd

first integrated tephrochronological record for the last 190 kyr from the fucino quaternary lacustrine succession central italy we present the first integrated tephrochronological study major and trace elemental glass composition sr and nd isotope analyses and 40ar 39ar dating for the last one tenth 82 m of the 900 m thick quaternary lacustrine succession of the fucino basin the largest and probably only central apennine intermountain tectonic depression that hosts a continuous lacustrine succession documenting the plio quaternary sedimentary history up to historical times major element glass compositions determined using a wavelength dispersive electron microprobe wds empa yielded the geochemical fingerprinting needed for a reliable identification of most of the 23 stratigraphically ordered tephra layers under investigation these include tephra from italian volcanoes such as campi flegrei etna colli albani ischia vico sabatini and undefined volcanic sources in the neapolitan area and latium region the recognition of key mediterranean marker tephra layers e g x 5 and x 6 is supported by trace element data acquired by laser ablation inductively couple plasma mass spectrometry la icp ms the sr and nd isotope compositions of selected layers where also determined for circumscribing the volcanic source of distal tephra and for supporting correlations with individual eruptive units we also propose a new more expeditious covariation diagram cao feotot vs cl for identifying the volcanic source of trachytic to phonolitic and tephrytic to phonolitic tephra that are the most common compositions of pyroclastic rocks from volcanoes of campania and latium regions finally we present five new 40ar 39ar age determinations including a new analytically well supported and more precise 40ar 39ar age for the widespread y 7 tephra and the first 40ar 39ar age determinations for one tephra from the sabatini volcanic district 126 ka and one tephra from neapolitan volcanic area campi flegrei 159 ka these newly dated tephra are widely dispersed e g monticchio southern italy adriatic sea and lake ohrid macedonia abania and have thus the potential to become important mediterranean mis 5 and mis 6 tephrochronological markers altogether the new geochemical data and 40ar 39ar ages precisely constrain the chronology of the investigated fucino succession spanning the last 190 ka in light of these results and by considering that this sedimentary succession possibly extends back to 2 ma fucino is likely to provide a very long continuous tephrostratigraphic record for the mediterranean area and become a key node in the dense network of tephra correlations of this region

sea level rise due to polar ice sheet mass loss during past warm periods background although thermal expansion of seawater and melting of mountain glaciers have dominated global mean sea level gmsl rise over the last century mass loss from the greenland and antarctic ice sheets is expected to exceed other contributions to gmsl rise under future warming to better constrain polarice sheetresponse to warmer temperatures we draw on evidence from in terglacial periods in the geologic record that ex perienced warmer polar temperatures and higher gmsls than present coastal records of sea level from these previous warm periods dem onstrate geographic variability because of the influence of several geophysical processes that operate across a range of magnitudes and time scales inferring gmsl and ice volume changes from these reconstructions is nontrivial and generally requires the use of geophysical models advances interdisciplinary studies of geo logic archives have ushered in a new era of deciphering magnitudes rates and sources of sea level rise advances in our understanding of polar ice sheet response to warmer climates have been made through an increase in the number and geographic distribution of sea level reconstructions better ice sheet constraints and the recognition that several geophysical processes cause spatially complex patterns in sea level in particular accounting for glacial isostatic processes helps to decipher spatial variability in coastal sea level records and has reconciled a number of site specific sea level reconstructions for warm periods that have oc curred within the past several hundred thou sand years this enables us to infer that during recent interglacial periods small increases in

monsoon and dust signals recorded in dasuopu glacier tibetan plateau during summer 1997 a 15 m firn core was recovered from dasuopu glacier 28 23 n 85 44 e 7000 m a s l on the northwest margin of xixabarngma feng in the central himalaya oxygen isotope values and concentrations of ca 2 mg 2 nh 4 so 4 2 and no 3 were measured over the 10 years of snow accumulation captured in the firn core the seasonal variations of 18 o values and major ion concentrations in the dasuopu core indicate that summer monsoon and dust signals are clearly recorded in dasuopu glacier annual variations in 18 o values are controlled by the amount effect with more negative i e lighter 18 o values representing summer monsoon precipitation characteristic of tropical regions higher concentrations of ca 2 mg 2 and so 4 2 reflect the influx of mineral aerosols from the vast arid and semi arid desert regions to the north and west during the spring dust storm period high spring concentrations of nh 4 and no 3 appear to reflect changes in regional biogenic source strength

mis 5e relative sea level changes in the mediterranean sea contribution of isostatic disequilibrium sea level indicators dated to the last interglacial or marine isotope stage mis 5e have a twofold value first they can be used to constrain the melting of greenland and antarctic ice sheets in response to global warming scenarios second they can be used to calculate the vertical crustal rates at active margins for both applications the contribution of glacio and hydro isostatic adjustment gia to vertical displacement of sea level indicators must be calculated in this paper we re assess mis 5e sea level indicators at 11 mediterranean sites that have been generally considered tectonically stable or affected by mild tectonics these are found within a range of elevations of 2 10 m above modern mean sea level four sites are characterized by two separate sea level stands which suggest a two step sea level highstand during mis 5e comparing field data with numerical modeling we show that i gia is an important contributor to the spatial and temporal variability of the sea level highstand during mis 5e ii the isostatic imbalance from the melting of the mis 6 ice sheet can produce a 2 0 m sea level highstand and iii a two step melting phase for the greenland and antarctic ice sheets reduces the differences between observations and predictions our results show that assumptions of tectonic stability on the basis of the mis 5e records carry intrinsically large uncertainties stemming either from uncertainties in field data and gia models the latter are propagated to either holocene or pleistocene sea level reconstructions if tectonic rates are considered linear through time

the use of magnetic susceptibility to measure long term soil redistribution abstract several studies have documented the severity of recent soil erosion on the canadian prairies where cultivation started about a century ago little quantitative information is available on erosion before 1960 this study attempts to quantify post and pre 1960 soil erosion in a small cultivated basin near saskatoon saskatchewan canada by measuring 137cs and magnetic susceptibility distribution with depth soil cores were collected along six transects three across closed depressions and three across the drainage channel in the cultivated field and one transect across an uncultivated depression the cores were sliced into 3 cm layers and the soil analyzed for 137cs and organic and inorganic c high variability in with depth in eroding areas as indicated by 137cs made it impossible to use to quantify past soil losses in these locations however these eroding upper and middle slope positions have a much higher than lower slope areas where soil deposition occurs and where the variability in with depth could be used to estimate soil deposition estimating soil deposition from the vs depth profiles was more successful in the closed depressions than in the drainage channel where the profiles may reflect the variable source areas of the materials rather than the pedological conditions the data indicated that soil deposition since 1960 has been about 30 to 50 of that prior to 1960 this suggests that soil deposition rates and by implication soil erosion rates have been relatively steady since cultivation of these soils started although there are clear indications that the spatial pattern of deposition has varied

a global compilation of coral sea level benchmarks implications and new challenges i present a quality controlled compilation of sea level data from u th dated corals encompassing 30 studies of 13 locations around the world the compilation contains relative sea level rsl data from each location based on both conventional and open system u th ages i have applied a commonly used age quality control criterion based on the initial 234u 238u activity ratios of corals in order to select reliable ages and to reconstruct sea level histories for the last 150 000 yr this analysis reveals scatter of rsl estimates among coeval coral benchmarks both within individual locations and between locations particularly during marine isotope stage mis 5a and the glacial inception following the last interglacial the character of data scatter during these time intervals imply that uncertainties still exist regarding tectonics glacio isostacy u series dating and or coral position to elucidate robust underlying patterns with confidence limits i performed a monte carlo style statistical analysis of the compiled coral data considering appropriate age and sea level uncertainties by its nature such an analysis has the tendency to smooth obscure millennial scale and finer details that may be important in individual datasets and favour the major underlying patterns that are supported by all datasets this statistical analysis is thus functional to illustrate major trends that are statistically robust what we know trends that are suggested but still are supported by few data what we might know subject to addition of more supporting data and improved corrections and which patterns data are clear outliers unlikely to be realistic given the rest of the global data and possibly needing further adjustments prior to the last glacial maximum and with the possible exception of the 130 120 ka period available coral data generally have insufficient temporal resolution and unexplained scatter which hinders identification of a well defined pattern with usefully narrow confidence limits this analysis thus provides a framework that objectively identifies critical targets for new data collection improved corrections and integration of coral data with independent stratigraphically continuous methods of sea level reconstruction

the marine isotope stage 1 5 cryptotephra record of tenaghi philippon greece towards a detailed tephrostratigraphic framework for the eastern mediterranean region abstract the iconic climate archive of tenaghi philippon tp ne greece allows the study of short term palaeoclimatic and environmental change throughout the past 1 3 ma to provide high quality age control for detailed palaeoclimate reconstructions based on the tp archive crypto tephra studies of a peat core tp 2005 have been carried out for the 0 130 ka interval the results show that the tp basin is ideally positioned to receive tephra fall from both the italian and aegean arc volcanic provinces two visible tephra layers the santorini cape riva y 2 c 22 ka and the campanian ignimbrite ci y 5 c 39 8 ka tephras and six primary cryptotephra layers namely the early holocene e1 tephra from the aeolian islands c 8 3 ka the campanian y 3 c 29 ka and x 6 tephras c 109 5 ka as well as counterpart tephras tm 18 1d c 40 4 ka tm 23 11 c 92 4 ka and tm 33 1a c 116 7 ka from the lago grande di monticchio sequence southern italy were identified along with repeatedly redeposited y 2 and ci tephra material bayesian modelling of the ages of seven of the primary tephra layers 60 radiocarbon measurements and 20 palynological control points have been applied to markedly improve the chronology of the tp archive this revised chronology constrains the age of tephra tm 18 1d to 40 90 41 66 cal ka bp 95 4 range several tephra layers identified in the tp record form important isochrons for correlating this archive with other terrestrial e g lago grande di monticchio sulmona basin and lake ohrid and marine e g adriatic sea core prad 1 2 and aegean sea core lc21 palaeoclimate records in the mediterranean region

space geodesy constrains ice age terminal deglaciation the global ice 6g_c vm5a model a new model of the last deglaciation event of the late quaternary ice age is here described and denoted as ice 6g c vm5a it differs from previously published models in this sequence in that it has been explicitly refined by applying all of the available global positioning system gps measurements of vertical motion of the crust that may be brought to bear to constrain the thickness of local ice cover as well as the timing of its removal additional space geodetic constraints have also been applied to specify the reference frame within which the gps data are described the focus of the paper is upon the three main regions of last glacial maximum ice cover namely north america northwestern europe eurasia and antarctica although greenland and the british isles will also be included if peripherally in the discussion in each of the three major regions the model predictions of the time rate of change of the gravitational field are also compared to that being measured by the gravity recovery and climate experiment satellites as an independent means of verifying the improvement of the model achieved by applying the gps constraints several aspects of the global characteristics of this new model are also discussed including the nature of relative sea level history predictions at far field locations in particular the caribbean island of barbados from which especially high quality records of postglacial sea level change are available but which records were not employed in the development of the model although ice 6g c vm5a is a significant improvement insofar as the most recently available gps observations are concerned comparison of model predictions with such far field relative sea level histories enables us to identify a series of additional improvements that should follow from a further stage of model iteration

precise chronology of the last interglacial period 234u 230th data from fossil coral reefs in the bahamas a detailed study of 238 u 234 u 230 th ages was made for different coral species from two bahamian reefs to determine the time scale of the sea level high during the last interglacial period using recently developed mass spectrometric techniques for the measurement of u and th isotopes thirty seven coral samples were analyzed in replicate typical errors at 125 ky are 1 5 ky 2 and 3 ky time intervals appear to be well resolved this high precision permits detailed chronologic study with time resolution adequate to define stages of the reef s history these data demonstrate that the time between transgression and regression of the ocean in the last interglacial was about 12 ky after which sea level fell rapidly at more than 2 m ky the high sea level stand began possibly by 132 ky and certainly by 129 ky ago when sea level reached 6 m above present mean low sea level high sea level was sustained until 120 ky and then fell rapidly this time period covers the milankovitch insolation peak at 65 n but is not sharply defined and the sea level high lasted from about 4 ky before the insolation peak to 8 ky after it we find no evidence for a double peak of sea level rise in the last interglacial episode that is high stands at both 125 and 142 ky there appears to be some discrepancy between this precise chronology for a coral reef on a tectonically stable platform and the chronology assigned to deep sea sediments the present results show that the duration of the last interglacial led to a 12 ky period of high sea level stand which is much longer than the insolation peak the study area consists of two sizeable bank barrier coral reefs of sangamon age that crop out along the coast northwest of cockburn town on san salvador island and at devil s point on great inagua island the initial stage of reef development is not revealed at either site but the main parts of both reefs are well preserved at cockburn town the beginning of the reef was marked by colonization of acropora palmata on hardground areas and possibly other corals at 132 ky ago patch reefs at the southeastern flank of the developing reef were growing by 129 to 126 ky ago by 126 to 123 ky ago the crest of the reef was formed by the frame building coral a palmata and associated patch reefs flourished along its flanks a palmata coral heads grew upward to a mean low sea level 6 m above the present one the reef began to decline as sea level dropped at about 123 to 120 ky ago near two measured profiles at devil s point the top of a rubblestone dominated by a cervicornis and patch reef corals preserved in growth position have been beveled off and represent an ancient wave cut surface 230 th ages on corals below and above this surface indicate that it was cut at about 125 1 ky ago

a highly resolved record of relative sea level in the western mediterranean sea during the last interglacial period the magnitude and trajectory of sea level change during marine isotope stage mis 5e of the last interglacial period is uncertain in general sea level may have been 6 9 m above present sea level with one or more oscillations of up to several metres superimposed here we present a well dated relative sea level record from the island of mallorca in the western mediterranean sea for mis 5e based on the occurrence of phreatic overgrowths on speleothems forming near sea level we find that relative sea level in this region was within a range of 2 15 0 75 m above present levels between 126 600 400 and 116 000 800 years ago although centennial scale excursions cannot be excluded due to some gaps in the speleothem record we corrected our relative sea level record for glacio isostatic adjustment using nine different glacial isostatic models together these models suggest that ice equivalent sea level in mallorca peaked at the start of mis 5e then gradually decreased and stabilized by 122 000 years ago until the highstand termination 116 000 years ago our sea level record does not support the hypothesis of rapid sea level fluctuations within mis 5e instead we suggest that melting of the polar ice sheets occurred early in the interglacial period followed by gradual ice sheet growth a sea level record from mallorca shows no evidence of large millennial scale oscillations during the last interglacial

u series evidence for two high last interglacial sea levels in southeastern tunisia abstract pleistocene raised marine deposits in southeastern tunisia consist of a siliciclastic unit that culminates at 3 m asl overlain by a carbonate rich unit with strombus bubonius that culminates at 5 m asl 234 u 238 u ratios on fossil ostraea shells from both units are compatible with a marine origin from the uranium incorporated into the shells and show narrowly clustered 230 th ages respectively between 147 and 110 ka and 141 and 100 ka the two units were therefore developed during marine isotopic substage 5e miss 5e last interglacial their heights are comparable to those of contemporaneous marine deposits found in many tectonically stable areas of the world such as in the bahamas and in bermuda and can therefore be used as indicators of eustatic changes during the last interglacial it is argued that on the basis of this evidence the last interglacial was characterised by two eustatic maxima

tephrostratigraphy of grotta del cavallo southern italy insights on the chronology of middle to upper palaeolithic transition in the mediterranean abstract the grotta del cavallo contains one of the most important stratification of mousterian uluzzian and final epigravettian tecnocomplexes its chronology is of paramount importance for understanding the timing of the transition between middle and upper palaeolithic in the mediterranean region as well as the demise of the neanderthal and the dispersal of the first anatomically modern humans through europe within the stratigraphy of the cave three different volcanic ash layers occur layer g fa and c ii they are located in the middle section of the mousterian layer g in between the mousterian and uluzzian layers layer fa and on top of the uluzzian horizons layer c ii the three tephra layers were chemically fingerprinted and correlated to well known and precisely dated widespread late pleistocene tephra markers specifically layer g fa and c ii were correlated to the x 6 108 7 0 9 ka y 6 45 5 1 0 ka and campanian ignimbrite 39 85 0 14 ka respectively these findings provide robust chronological points allowing to conclude that i the mousterian occupation of the cave took place after the fall of the sea level following the mis 5e high stand ii the mousterian uluzzian boundary can be dated to 45 5 1 0 ka and climatostratigraphically firmly placed at the transition between the greenland interstadial 12 gi12 greenland stadial 12 gs12 iii the uluzzian lasted for at least five millennial spanning the gs12 gi9 period and ended at beginning of the heinrich event 4

new data on the pleistocene of mallorca abstract stratigraphic geomorphologic and isoleucine epimerization studies at 15 sites in mallorca define four aminozones a c e and f g of increasing age that are related to transgressive regressive marine cycles from the holocene to the mid pleistocene calibration of aminozone e glycymeris aile ile mean from all sites 0 41 0 03 n 38 is provided by a 129 7 ka u series coral age on cladocora caespitosa from son grauet of the younger aminozones a relates to the holocene transgression and aminozone c to a mid to late isotopic stage 5 event 90 15 ka revealed only by supralittoral eolianites assigning an age to the older poorly resolved aminozones f and g called f g in this case is uncertain without supporting radiometric data but an age of 180 ka can be assigned to these aminozone s f g based on a kinetic model and other examples in the mediterranean several deposits previously dated u series molluscs between 75 and 300 ka appear to belong to the last interglacial complex stage 5 and aminozone e a proposed revision of the positive sea level history of mallorca shows multiple minor oscillations during the major last interglacial cycle stage 5 and two mid pleistocene sea levels one lower than present and the other at about 14 m a s l

differences between the last two glacial maxima and implications for ice sheet δ18o and sea level reconstructions studies of past glacial cycles yield critical information about climate and sea level ice volume variability including the sensitivity of climate to radiative change and impacts of crustal rebound on sea level reconstructions for past interglacials here we identify significant differences between the last and penultimate glacial maxima lgm and pgm in terms of global volume and distribution of land ice despite similar temperatures and radiative forcing our analysis challenges conventional views of relationships between global ice volume sea level seawater oxygen isotope values and deep sea temperature and supports the potential presence of large floating arctic ice shelves during the pgm the existence of different glacial modes calls for focussed research on the complex processes behind ice age development we present a glacioisostatic assessment to demonstrate how a different pgm ice sheet configuration might affect sea level estimates for the last interglacial results suggest that this may alter existing last interglacial sea level estimates which often use an lgm like ice configuration by several metres likely upward

vertical movements on the eastern margin of the tyrrhenian extensional basin new data from mt bulgheria southern apennines italy abstract in this paper we present the results of an integrated stratigraphical geomorphological and morphotectonic study carried out in mt bulgheria a rocky headland located on the eastern margin of the tyrrhenian extensional basin in southern italy such a margin is characterised by the occurrence of uplifted headlands alternated with subsiding half grabens in particular mt bulgheria constitutes the northeastern margin of the gulf of policastro peri tyrrhenian depression in the study area pliocene quaternary continental deposits and erosional landforms are present together with pleistocene wave cut and wave built marine terraces the integrated study of pliocene pleistocene deposits and landforms allowed a detailed reconstruction of the geomorphological evolution of mt bulgheria to be made furthermore the tectonic behaviour of this portion of the tyrrhenian margin during plio quaternary times could be characterised in particular we recognised that a succession of alternated uplift and subsidence episodes affected the headland since the beginning of early pleistocene when the eastward migrating coastline of the tyrrhenian extensional basin reached mt bulgheria the alternated uplift and subsidence events lasted for early and middle pleistocene their cessation in late pleistocene is demonstrated by the occurrence of late pleistocene strandlines at an elevation comparable with that of the 130 ka sea level highstand as recorded in stable areas of the mediterranean region the occurrence of marine terraces allowed the absolute vertical movements to be estimated their summation produced an uplift of the headland of 400 m since the beginning of the santernian 150 m of which occurred in the middle pleistocene along the onshore belt of the tyrrhenian margin of southern apennines other structural highs bordering the peri tyrrhenian depressions provide evidence for subsidence episodes interrupting the prevailing uplift trend recorded during the quaternary this together with the distribution of quaternary marine deposits both downthrown and raised and terraces shows that the tyrrhenian margin of southern apennines was affected by strongly variable vertical movements

timing and duration of the last interglacial evidence for a restricted interval of widespread coral reef growth abstract we report new mass spectrometric u series ages for eight last interglacial fossil reefs along the continental margin of western australia corals were selected in growth position from localities that are characterized by apparently low levels of diagenesis and relative tectonic stability so that the fossil reefs provide critical information on last interglacial sea levels without requiring corrections for tectonic movements in addition we have improved the constraint on the timing of onset of reef growth by recovering drill core coral from the base of the reefs uranium and thorium isotopes were measured with high levels of precision leading to improvements in age resolution and allowing samples which have undergone diagenetic exchange of uranium and thorium to be more easily identified and discarded these data supplement our previous results for rottnest island and leander point leading to more than seventy mass spectrometric u series ages from which constraints can be placed on the timing duration and character of the last interglacial sea level highstand reliable ages show that reef growth started contemporaneously at 128 1 ka along the entire western australian coastline while relative sea levels were at least 3 m above the present level because western australia is located far from the former penultimate glacial maximum ice sheets and are not significantly effected by glacial unloading these data constrain the timing of onset of the last interglacial period to 128 1 ka assuming reef growth started soon after sea level approached interglacial levels a unique regressive reef sequence at mangrove bay constrains the timing of termination of the last interglacial period to 116 1 ka the major episode of reef building however both globally and locally along the western australian coast is restricted to a very narrow interval occurring from 128 ka and 121 ka suggesting that global ocean surface temperatures were warm and or sea levels were stable enough to allow prolific reef growth only during the earlier part of the last interglacial

paleo sea level changes and relative sea level indicators precise measurements indicative meaning and glacial isostatic adjustment perspectives from mallorca western mediterranean abstract paleo relative sea level rsl indicators formed during the marine isotope stage mis 5e have been reported by a large number of studies worldwide despite this three main aspects are seldom reported 1 use of high precision survey techniques applied to mis 5e rsl indicators 2 application of modern analogs to understand the indicative meaning of mis 5e rsl indicators 3 estimates of the effects of glacial isostatic adjustment gia on the mis 5e records in this study we show how the three points above have been addressed in a focused study on last interglacial outcrops on the island of mallorca we measured the elevation of several rsl indicators with high accuracy differential gps vertical accuracies down to 0 1 m and we established the relationship between each rsl indicator and the paleo sea level through calculation of the indicative meaning for each rsl indicator in particular we present a novel technique to calculate the indicative meaning of fossil beach deposits with a phase averaged morphodynamic model cshore we show how this approach helps overcoming difficulties with the survey of the modern analogs for these indicators our results show that two paleo rsls are imprinted in mallorca at 2 9 0 8 m and 11 3 1 0 m we then compare our field based results with modelled paleo rsl calculated from the predictions of the ice earth coupled anice selen model using few different ice sheet melting scenarios during mis 5e we conclude that indicative ranges can be derived from relatively simple morphodynamic models and that the comparison of field derived and modelled rsl values is a good method to validate possible scenarios of mis 5e sea level variability especially in absence of precise dating

sensitivity of last interglacial sea level high stands to ice sheet configuration during marine isotope stage 6 abstract estimates of peak global mean sea level gmsl during the last interglacial lig 129 116 ka based on geological sea level high stand markers require a correction for the contaminating influence of glacial isostatic adjustment gia this correction is obtained by calculating the viscoelastic response of the earth to changes in the ice and ocean load prior to and following the lig while ice retreat over the last deglaciation is relatively well constrained changes in ice cover prior to the lig are more uncertain we investigate the sensitivity of numerical predictions of gia during the lig to variations in the geometry of pre lig ice cover and the timing of the deglaciation into the lig with a particular focus on marine isotope stage mis 6 190 130 ka we demonstrate that reconstructing the pre lig ice history by replicating the last glacial cycle back in time rather than using ice volume approximations based on oxygen isotope records can introduce errors in lig high stand predictions of 5 m at sites on the peripheral bulge of major ice complexes and up to 2 m at far field sites we also demonstrate that predictions of lig sea level are more sensitive to the geographic distribution of ice cover during mis 6 than previously recognized adopting simulations which vary the relative size of late pleistocene ice cover over north america and eurasia can yield a change in predicted high stand elevations of 5 m in both the near and far field of northern hemisphere ice sheets this far field sensitivity arises in part from the reorientation of earth s rotation axis during mis 6 which in turn drives sea level changes with a distinct geographic signature in future work we will apply the insights gained here to re evaluate the observed geographic variability in geological high stand markers of lig age and estimates of gmsl based upon them

ice volume and sea level during the last interglacial during the last interglacial period 125 000 years ago sea level was at least several meters higher than at present with substantial variability observed for peak sea level at geographically diverse sites speculation that the west antarctic ice sheet collapsed during the last interglacial period has drawn particular interest to understanding climate and ice sheet dynamics during this time interval we provide an internally consistent database of coral u th ages to assess last interglacial sea level observations in the context of isostatic modeling and stratigraphic evidence these data indicate that global eustatic sea level peaked 5 5 to 9 meters above present sea level requiring smaller ice sheets in both greenland and antarctica relative to today and indicating strong sea level sensitivity to small changes in radiative forcing

extending the tephra and palaeoenvironmental record of the central mediterranean back to 430 ka a new core from fucino basin central italy abstract here we present the first tephrostratigraphic palaeomagnetic and multiproxy data from a new 98 m deep sediment core retrieved from the fucino basin central italy spanning the last 430 kyr palaeoenvironmental proxy data ca xrf gamma ray and magnetic susceptibility show a cyclical variability related to interglacial glacial cycles since the marine isotope stage mis 12 mis 11 transition more than 130 tephra layers are visible to the naked eye 11 of which were analysed glass wds and successfully correlated to known eruptions and or other equivalent tephra in addition to tephra already recognised in the previously investigated cores spanning the last 190 kyr we identified for the first time tephra from the eruptions of tufo giallo di sacrofano sabatini 288 0 2 0 ka villa senni colli albani 367 5 1 6 ka pozzolane nere and its precursor colli albani 405 0 2 0 ka and 407 1 4 2 ka respectively and castel broco vulsini 419 490 ka the latter occurs at the bottom of the core and has been 40ar 39ar dated at 424 3 3 2 ka thus providing a robust chronological constrain for both the eruption itself and the base of the investigated succession direct 40ar 39ar dating and tephra geochemical fingerprinting provide a preliminary radioisotopic based chronological framework for the mis 11 mis 7 interval which represent a foundation for the forthcoming multiproxy studies and for investigating the remaining 110 tephra layers that are recorded within this interval such future developments will contribute towards an improved mis 11 mis 7 mediterranean tephrostratigraphy which is still poorly explored and exploited

reconstruction of the mis 5 5 5 3 and 5 1 coastal terraces in latium central italy a re evaluation of the sea level history in the mediterranean sea during the last interglacial abstract we present a geomorphological stratigraphical and geochronological study reconstructing a suite of paleo surfaces in a 200 km long coastal sector of the central tyrrhenian sea between argentario and circeo promontories identification of the near shore deposits associated with these paleo surfaces allow us to define corresponding marine terraces and paleo sea levels 40ar 39ar and esr u th geochronologic constraints on key deposits provide correlation with the terraces previously recognized in the coast of central latium refining their correlation with the marine isotopic stages results of this study enable us to propose a re assessment of the ages for the sea level markers of mis 5 5 5 3 5 1 in the central tyrrhenian sea suggest that a continuous tectonic uplift with an average rate of 0 224 mm yr affects the latium coast since 200 ka provide new evidence for a mis 5 5 paleo sea level marker occurring at 35 m a s l on the coastal sector extending from montalto di castro to latina while it possibly drops down and connects to a paleo sea level ranging 10 5 m between monte circeo and gaeta previously attributed to this interglacial discussing possible evidence of similar elevation of the sea level during mis 5 5 5 3 and 5 1 interglacials in the tyrrhenian sea compare this datum with those from the western pacific and several coral reefs where the differences with respect to tectonically stable regions were attributed either to tectonics or to the glacial isostatic adjustment showing that the presented record of sea level markers may have a strong impact on modeling the post glacial effects in the mediterranean sea and on the paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic studies in this region

uranium series ages of fossil corals from mallorca spain the neotyrrhenian high stand of the mediterranean sea revisited abstract the emergent marine deposits of the mediterranean basin have been recognized as an important record of quaternary sea level history for more than a century previous workers identified what have been interpreted to be two separate high stands of sea in the late quaternary namely the eutyrrhenian thought to be 120 ka and the neotyrrhenian thought to be either 100 ka or 80 ka on mallorca spain both of these named deposits lie close to present sea level implying paleo sea levels slightly above present during both marine isotope stages mis 5 5 5e and either 5 3 5c or 5 1 5a if these interpretations are correct they conflict at least in part with sea level records from far field localities we analyzed corals from the neotyrrhenian beds on mallorca which gave u series ages from 126 ka to 118 ka these ages are consistent with previously published amino acid data that show that the neotyrrhenian and eutyrrhenian deposits are not significantly different in age a fossil molluscan fauna from the neotyrrhenian deposits on mallorca has a warm water paleozoogeographic aspect with nine southward ranging species and four extralimital southern species when compared with sea surface temperatures obtained from planktonic foraminifera and alkenones from odp core 977 in the nearby alboran sea the only time period that shows comparable warmth is mis 5 5 5e consistent with the u series ages of corals from the neotyrrhenian deposits we propose that the neotyrrhenian deposits are a beachrock facies of the same age as the eutyrrhenian deposits this interpretation is consistent with the differences in physical sedimentology of the two deposits explains the u series and amino acid data indicating the same age is consistent with the very slight elevation difference of the neotyrrhenian and eutyrrhenian beds and explains the similar though not identical paleozoogeographic aspects of their fossil faunas

tracer techniques in aeolian research approaches applications and challenges abstract aeolian processes the entrainment transport and deposition of sediments by wind impacts climate biogeochemical cycles food security environmental quality and human health considering the multitude of interactions between aeolian processes and all the major components of the earth system there is a growing interest in the scientific community to quantify the wind related sediment movement process and redistribution rates at different spatial and temporal scales however this quantification is rather challenging due to the complexities of physical mechanisms involved in aeolian processes and the inherent fundamental differences from the rather well studied processes controlling fluvial erosion traditional techniques such as erosion plots and surveying methods for monitoring wind erosion are capable of quantifying sediment movement on small scales but they have a number of limitations in terms of the representativeness of the data obtained spatial and temporal resolution and the patterns over extended areas and the costs involved the demand for alternative methods of soil loss and sediment redistribution assessment in order to complement and enhance the existing methods has directed attention to use tracing approaches for monitoring rates and spatial patterns of sediment redistribution at various scales a comprehensive synthesis of available information from different scientific disciplines on aeolian tracer techniques their applications and limitations are important in understanding the role of aeolian processes and their interactions with the earths systems in changing climate and management scenarios the objective of this paper is to provide a scientific review of the current tracer approaches in aeolian studies including fallout radionuclides rare earth elements sediment finger printing and soil magnetism as well as giving an introduction of the potential tracers that are in development

on postglacial sea level summary an exact method is presented for calculating the changes in sea level that occur when ice and water masses are rearranged on the surface of elastic and viscoelastic non rotating earth models the method is used to calculate the instantaneous elastic and delayed vi scoelastic sea level changes following the partial melting of late quaternary ice sheets we find that there can be large errors in the usual assumption that changes in sea level are uniform over the ocean basins if a quantity of ice equivalent to a uniform 100 m rise in sea level melts from the laurentide and fennoscandian ice sheets then in the south pacific the instantaneous rise in sea level can be as large as 120m in the north atlantic the instantaneous rise is always less than 100 m there is a zone in the north atlantic with almost no sea level change and near greenland and norway the sea level falls rather than rises by over 100 m one thousand years after the melting a forebulge migrating towards the ice loads causes water to flow from the south pacific into the north pacific suggesting that raised beaches should occur in the south pacific the gravitational attraction of an ice mass upon a nearby ocean tends to hold sea level high in the vicinity of the ice this extra load near the ice may have a significant influence on postglacial isostatic adjustment

the analysis of last interglacial mis 5e relative sea level indicators reconstructing sea level in a warmer world the last interglacial mis 5e 128 116 ka is among the most studied past periods in earth s history the climate at that time was warmer than today primarily due to different orbital conditions with smaller ice sheets and higher sea level field evidence for mis 5e sea level was reported from thousands of sites but often paleo shorelines were measured with low accuracy techniques and in some cases there are contrasting interpretations about paleo sea level reconstructions for this reason large uncertainties still surround both the maximum sea level attained as well as the pattern of sea level change throughout mis 5e such uncertainties are exacerbated by the lack of a uniform approach to measuring and interpreting the geological evidence of paleo sea levels in this review we discuss the characteristics of mis 5e field observations and we set the basis for a standardized approach to mis 5e paleo sea level reconstructions that is already successfully applied in holocene sea level research application of the standard definitions and methodologies described in this paper will enhance our ability to compare data from different research groups and different areas in order to gain deeper insights into mis 5e sea level changes improving estimates of last interglacial sea level is in turn a key to understanding the behavior of ice sheets in a warmer world

late pleistocene records of littoral processes at the tyrrhenian coast central italy depositional environments and luminescence chronology two cliff sites on the tyrrhenian coast of central italy have been investigated in order to investigate late pleistocene depositional environments by microfacies analysis and chronostratigraphy by luminescence age estimations both sections cover the period from the last interglacial to the end of the last glaciation in the buca dei corvi site an increasing rate of uplift is recognised which is responsible for significant environmental change and formation of the modern coastal fault scarp at around 9 ka in the golfo di baratti site the vertical succession of three marine horizons previously recognised by cortemiglia et al 1983 is attributed to the ois stages 5c 5a and 3 respectively this cliff section is affected by nne ssw orientated normal faults confirming that extentional structural processes are still active the coastal deposit of stage 3 today located at 7 m a s l suggests abnormal high uplift rate if the position of the palaeo shoreline was assumed at 40 to 50 m both central mediterranean coastal records strongly suggest that the eustatic sea level has dropped to a smaller amount than that of the open oceans

coral indicators of past sea level change a global repository of u series dated benchmarks fossil corals provide valuable data for reconstructing past sea levels as they are often well preserved in the fossil record and can be dated with u series methods here we present a global and internally consistent database of usingle bondth dated fossil coral sea level indicators including full consideration of all known associated uncertainties both vertical and chronological we include carefully determined taxon specific depth distributions rather than blanket depth uncertainty terms as used in most previous work this is based on a synthesis of extensive modern ecological information on depth ranges these ranges are found to be spatially variable between ocean basins between regions and on sub regional scales because depth itself is not limiting instead depth distributions arise from complex physical chemical and biological interactions with coral reef growth distribution and composition one of the main causes for recognition of the greater depth variability of coral taxa has been the routine inclusion of deep diving and rov surveys in coral ecological studies over the past few decades which has broken through the shallow water bias of early surveys by adding frequent observations on deeper occurrences although more are needed it is also clear from our assessment that coral habitat depth distributions must be determined on the species level to reduce uncertainties in reconstructions of past sea levels and that application to sea level studies then requires these studies also to identify fossil corals to the species level samples identified only to the genus level give rise to wide uncertainties in habitat depth and hence sea level our database contains extensive metadata to assist evaluations of dating quality as well as geomorphic and stratigraphic metadata we demonstrate with examples how such metadata can help to evaluate sea level reconstructions for example by identifying outlier points one example discusses the last interglacial lig where we use the available data with their uncertainties to assess probabilistically the time at which local sea levels exceed that of the present which yields a mean age of 124 6 ka with 95 probability bounds at 118 5 and 129 5 ka we conclude with identification of key outstanding issues relating to i current incomplete understanding of tectonic setting including the current lack of independent verification of uplift subsidence rates and reliance of somewhat unsatisfactory and circular use of the elevation of last interglacial deposits ii the depth distributions of coral taxa and iii the complete documentation of stratigraphic geomorphological and other contextual information with suggestions for strategies to address these issues

mid holocene relative sea level changes along atlantic patagonia new data from camarones chubut argentina this paper concerns the relative sea level changes associated with the atlantic patagonian coast derived from sea level index points whose elevation was determined by a differential global position system dgps bioencrustations from outcrops located near camarones chubut argentina consist of autochthonous deposits characterized by austromegabalanus psittacus molina 1782 encrusting acervulinid foraminifera coralline red algae and bryozoans the association of the different organisms is interpreted as being associated with an intertidal environment and they have been used as index points to establish the relative sea level position the main conclusion is that the relative sea level between c 7000 and 5300 cal yr bp was in the range of c 2 4 m a s l with a mean value of c 3 5 m a s l our data seem to support the existence of different rates of relative sea level fall in different sectors of atlantic patagonia during the holocene and highlight the importance of a more precise and accurate r

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

sea level and deep water temperature changes derived from benthic foraminifera isotopic records we show that robust regressions can be established between relative sea level rsl data and benthic foraminifera oxygen isotopic ratios from the north atlantic and equatorial pacific ocean over the last climatic cycle we then apply these regressions to long benthic isotopic records retrieved at one north atlantic and one equatorial pacific site to build a composite rsl curve as well as the associated confidence interval over the last four climatic cycles our proposed reconstruction of rsl is in good agreement with the sparse rsl data available prior to the last climatic cycle we compute bottom water temperature changes at the two sites and at one southern indian ocean site taking into account potential variations in north atlantic local deep water 18o our results indicate that a last glacial maximum lgm enrichment of the ocean mean oxygen isotopic ratio of 0 95 is the lowest value compatible with unfrozen deep waters in the southern indian ocean if local deep water 18o did not increase during glacials with respect to present such a value of the lgm mean ocean isotopic enrichment would impose a maximum decrease in local bottom water 18o at the north atlantic site of 0 30 during glacials

constraint on the penultimate glacial maximum northern hemisphere ice topography 140 kyrs bp abstract the penultimate glacial maximum pgm 140 kyrs bp is known to be the most extensive glaciation on record that occurred during the last 400 kyrs over eurasia we used a coupled atmosphere ocean sea ice land model to simulate the climate of the pgm accounting for a reconstruction of the large pgm eurasian ice sheet due to uncertainties in the pgm laurentide ice sheet topography two simulations with different ice sheet topographies over north america large as for the last glacial maximum lgm and small as for 13 kyrs bp are performed results show that the simulated pgm glacial maximum climates are of comparable magnitude with previous simulations of the lgm in both cases assuming a small laurentide ice sheet instead of the lgm one in our pgm simulations results in a shift in the planetary waves this causes an increase in storm track activity over the north atlantic as well as higher temperatures and precipitation rates over north america north atlantic and over the eurasian ice sheet in addition it induces a negative temperature anomaly over east siberia yielding a thick snow cover which seems to be in agreement with data from recent arctic campaigns suggesting that an ice cap developed over beringia during the pgm all together the changes in large scale circulation and regional climate simulated using a small laurentide ice sheet match the proxies well based on our findings we suggest that the laurentide ice sheet might have been smaller during the pgm than during the lgm in turn also implying a larger eurasian ice sheet than during the lgm which is supported by various geological evidence of the pgm

tephrochronology of the astronomically tuned kc01b deep sea core ionian sea insights into the explosive activity of the central mediterranean area during the last 200 ka abstract we present a major trace and rare earth element characterization of single glass shards from fifteen tephra layers found in the astronomically tuned kc01b deep sea core ionian sea central mediterranean 36 15 25 n 17 34 44 e 3642 m water depth kc01b is considered a reference core for the mediterranean area since it provides a new reliable astronomical tuned timescale for the last 1 112 my lourens 2004 the studied deposits punctuate the marine record in a time span ranging from ca 16 ka to ca 191 ka b p encompassing the climatic zones y x w and v they are related to volcanic activity of the campania plain aeolian islands mt etna and pantelleria island along with major main markers of the central mediterranean area such as y 1 y 5 and x 6 astronomically dated at 16 7 ka 39 1 ka and 110 5 ka respectively the succession contains a number of well preserved deposits which can represent useful inter archive instruments of correlation the campania plain in particular sourced at least nine compositionally homogeneous tephra layers prior to the campanian ignimbrite event the data obtained in this work provide a new detailed analytical reference database for ionian sea tephrochronology and for proximal distal correlation studies they may help to unravel from the marine record the history of poorly known or unknown explosive activity on land since the middle pleistocene along with chemical composition size and dispersal of the products

contribution of antarctica to past and future sea level rise polar temperatures over the last several million years have at times been slightly warmer than today yet global mean sea level has been 6 9 metres higher as recently as the last interglacial 130 000 to 115 000 years ago and possibly higher during the pliocene epoch about three million years ago in both cases the antarctic ice sheet has been implicated as the primary contributor hinting at its future vulnerability here we use a model coupling ice sheet and climate dynamics including previously underappreciated processes linking atmospheric warming with hydrofracturing of buttressing ice shelves and structural collapse of marine terminating ice cliffs that is calibrated against pliocene and last interglacial sea level estimates and applied to future greenhouse gas emission scenarios antarctica has the potential to contribute more than a metre of sea level rise by 2100 and more than 15 metres by 2500 if emissions continue unabated in this case atmospheric warming will soon become the dominant driver of ice loss but prolonged ocean warming will delay its recovery for thousands of years