secular changes in the solar semidiurnal tide of the western north atlantic ocean 1 an analysis of twentieth century tide gauge records reveals that the solar semidiurnal tide s2 has been decreasing in amplitude along the eastern coast of north america and at the mid ocean site bermuda in relative terms the observed rates are unusually large of order 10 per century periods of greatest change however are inconsistent among the stations and roughly half the stations show increasing amplitude since the late 1990s excepting the gulf of maine lunar tides are either static or slightly increasing in amplitude a few stations show decreases large changes in solar but not lunar tides suggest causes related to variable radiational forcing but the hypothesis is at present unproven

taphonomy of ground squirrel remains in a late pleistocene ichnofabric nebraska usa abstract the burrows and skeletal remains of late pleistocene ground squirrels are present within the citellus zone a bioturbated interval that includes the base of the gilman canyon formation and the top of the loveland formation of the central great plains usa to determine the spatial relationship of the ground squirrel remains to the citellus zone ichnofabric the author screen washed 0 67 tonne of sediment sampled from burrow fill and from adjacent sediment matrix at 104 outcrops in 10 major canyons in the study area within the upper pedogenically altered portion of the zone 14 of the remains are in burrow fill and 86 are in adjacent matrix all of the remains in the lower portion of the zone are in burrow fill all of the weathered remains are found in the pedogenically altered upper portion of the zone published behavioral observations of spermophilus richardsonii explain this phenomenon upon emergence from hibernation the animals eject skeletal remains from burrows the bones are left on the surface in the vicinity of burrow entrances to be incorporated into the soil morphometric analysis of their postcranial remains confirms the conclusion of an earlier study of cranial remains that the s richardsonii represented in the citellus zone were intermediate between two modern subspecies this relationship is consistent with phylogenetic conclusions of genetic studies

can we model the effect of observed sea level rise on tides the link between secular changes in the lunar semidiurnal ocean tide m 2 and relative sea level rise is examined based on numerical tidal modeling and the analysis of long term sea level records from europe australia and the north american atlantic coasts the study sets itself apart from previous work by using a 1 12 global tide model that incorporates the effects of self attraction and loading through time step wise spherical harmonic transforms instead of iteration this novel self attraction and loading implementation incurs moderate computational overheads some 50 and facilitates the simulation of shelf sea tides with a global root mean square error of 14 6 cm in depths shallower than 1 000 m to reproduce measured tidal changes in recent decades the model is perturbed with realistic water depth changes compiled from maps of altimetric sea level trends and postglacial crustal rebound the m 2 response to the adopted sea level rise scenarios exhibits peak sensitivities in the north atlantic and many marginal seas with relative magnitudes of 1 5 per century comparisons with a collection of 45 tide gauge records reveals that the model reproduces the sign of the observed amplitude trends in 80 of the cases and captures considerable fractions of the absolute m 2 variability specifically for stations in the gulf of mexico and the chesapeake delaware bay system while measured to model disparities remain large in several key locations such as the european shelf the study is deemed a major step toward credible predictions of secular changes in the main components of the ocean tide

age dating and the orbital theory of the ice ages development of a high resolution 0 to 300 000 year chronostratigraphy using the concept of orbital tuning a continuous high resolution deep sea chronostratigraphy has been developed spanning the last 300 000 yr the chronology is developed using a stacked oxygen isotope stratigraphy and four different orbital tuning approaches each of which is based upon a different assumption concerning the response of the orbital signal recorded in the data each approach yields a separate chronology the error measured by the standard deviation about the average of these four results which represents the best chronology has an average magnitude of only 2500 yr this small value indicates that the chronology produced is insensitive to the specific orbital tuning technique used excellent convergence between chronologies developed using each of five different paleoclimatological indicators from a single core is also obtained the resultant chronology is also insensitive to the specific indicator used the error associated with each tuning approach is estimated independently and propagated through to the average result the resulting error estimate is independent of that associated with the degree of convergence and has an average magnitude of 3500 yr in excellent agreement with the 2500 yr estimate transfer of the final chronology to the stacked record leads to an estimated error of 1500 yr thus the final chronology has an average error of 5000 yr

sea level rise and tidal power plants in the gulf of maine 1 the response of the bay of fundy and gulf of maine to large scale tidal power plants and future sea level rise is investigated using an established numerical tidal model free stream tidal turbines were simulated within the bay of fundy by implementing an additional bed friction term kt the present day maximum tidal power output was determined to be 7 1 gw and required kt 0 03 extraction at this level would lead to large changes in the tidal amplitudes across the gulf of maine with future slr implemented the energy available for extraction increases with 0 5 1 gw per m slr slr simulations without tidal power extraction revealed that the response of the semidiurnal tides to slr is highly dependent on how changes in sea level are implemented in the model when extensive flood defenses are assumed at the present day coast line the response to slr is far larger than when land is allowed to permanently flood for example within the bay of fundy itself the m2 amplitude increases with nearly 0 12 m per m slr without flooding but it changes with only 0 03 m per m slr with flooding we suggest that this is due to the flooding of land cells changing the resonant properties of the basin

the influence of convective thermal forcing on the three dimensional circulation around squall lines abstract midlatitude squall lines are typically trailed by a large region of stratiform cloudiness and precipitation with significant mesoscale flow features including an ascending front to rear flow a descending rear inflow jet line end vortices and at later times mesoscale convective vortices the present study suggests that the mesoscale circulation in the trailing stratiform region is primarily determined by the time mean pattern of heating and cooling in the leading convective line analysis of the line normal circulation shows that it develops as thermally generated gravity waves spread away from the leading line midlevel line end vortices are the result of diabatically driven tilting of horizontal vorticity generated by the time mean thermal forcing in the presence of the coriolis force a symmetric thermal forcing generates an asymmetric stratiform circulation and a pattern of vertical displacement that resembles the comma shaped stratiform anvil observed in real systems this suggests tha

space geodetic and water level gauge constraints on continental uplift and tilting over north america regional convergence of the ice 6g_c vm5a vm6 models

u th dating of freshwater travertine from middle velino valley central italy paleoclimatic and geological implications abstract six travertine bodies outcropping along the middle velino valley central italy have been studied and dated using the u th method in order to obtain new chronological constraints for the recent geological evolution of the area the lithological and sedimentological characteristics of travertines have been described showing that such deposits can be referred to waterfall pool terraces and gentle slopes environment travertines have formed during warm periods and can be referred to marine oxygen isotope stages 5 3 and 1 travertine deposition seems to stop around 5 ka bp according to other european and italian sites pollen stratigraphy and ostracod assemblages from the close sequence of valle di castiglione characterized by the same climatic conditions of velino valley have confirmed that periods of velino valley travertine deposition were effectively characterized by warm and wet climatic conditions seismic activity strongly active in the area since the middle pleistocene has deeply influenced the location and the discharge of springs which have deposited the travertines influencing in turn the shape and size of travertine bodies

younger dryas style cooling events at glacial terminations i vi at odp site 658 associated benthic δ13c anomalies constrain meltwater hypothesis high resolution planktonic and epibenthic stable isotope records from ocean drilling program site 658 off northwest africa provide a basis for a detailed study of glacial terminations i vi during the last 650 000 years the duration of the terminations was about one half to one quarter of an orbital precession cycle 5800 10 700 years when its amplitude was high at low amplitudes the terminations lasted longer than half an obliquity cycle 29 000 years marked climatic rebounds similar to the younger dryas each with a duration of 1000 2500 years subdivided all six terminations into distinct steps a b and c important parts of the deglacial steps were as brief as 700 1000 years the speed of climatic change suggests that special associations existed between orbital forcing and inherent instability of the ice sheets in harmony with published models the more rapid pulses of glacial meltwater incursions to the northern north atlantic led to one or more brief short term shut downs of north atlantic deep water formation this process is reflected by pronounced benthic 13c minima that precisely coincide in most cases with the end of the 18o deglaciation steps and immediately terminate with succeeding younger dryas style cooling events thus we conclude that the rebounds resulted from a short term antecedent estuarine circulation regime in the north atlantic except for the younger dryas itself which succeeded the allerod with its well ventilated atlantic deepwater circulation and hence continues to be an enigma

geochronologies and environmental records of quaternary fluvial sequences in the guadalope basin northeast spain based on luminescence dating

the tolsta interstadial scotland correlation with d o cycles gi 8 to gi 5 abstract organic sediments buried by till at tolsta head in north lewis in the scottish outer hebridean islands have been re investigated radiocarbon dates of 32 26 kyr bp indicate correlation with the denekamp interstadial of the netherlands and the sandnes alesund interstadial of norway the organic sediments contain an unusually detailed record of the dominantly open grassland vegetation during the interstadial variations in palaeotemperature inferred from the pollen assemblages and sedimentology are provisionally matched with the 18o record of the gisp2 ice core and correlation with the dansgaard oeschger cycles gi 8 gi 5 is proposed the interstadial starts at 38 1k cal yr and 32 8k radiocarbon years the termination of the interstadial and the build up of the late devensian weichselian ice sheets in scotland and north west europe dates from 32k cal yr and 28 7k radiocarbon years whether the tolsta and other contemporaneous episodes are intervals or interstadials is also considered

ocean chemistry during glacial time abstract measurements of co2 to air ratios in the gas trapped in bubbles in ice of glacial age suggest that the co2 content of the atmosphere was considerably lower during peak glacial time than during holocene time the purpose of this paper is to show that such a change must in all likelihood be the result of alterations in the nutrient element chemistry of sea water two possible scenarios are presented one involves alternate storage and erosion of phosphorous leaving residues from shelf sediments the other involves changes in the c p ratio in the organic debris falling to the deep sea means of verifying the nutrient cycle hypothesis are also given it is shown that the 13c record as we know it in planktonic and benthic foraminifera the oxygen record as inferred from benthic foraminifera species distributions and the early post glacial caco3 preservation event as recorded by aragonitic pteropods are consistent with both of the hypotheses presented only if an early post glacial spike in the 13c record for planktonic shells could be found would it be possible to eliminate one of these hypotheses i e that involving shelf storage the implications of these nutrient hypotheses to climate theory are as follows if shelf storage is responsible for the glacial to interglacial co2 increase then the co2 change must be considered an amplifier of some primary cause the reason is that sea level changes are needed to drive deposition on and erosion from the shelves on the other hand if changes in the c p ratio for falling debris are responsible then the co2 change could either be an amplifier or a primary cause for the major glacial to interglacial climatic cycle the latter is possible as self sustained oscillations in ocean chemistry might be driven by interactions between ocean ecology and ocean nutrient chemistry

comments on the impact of the ice phase and radiation on a midlatitude squall line system abstract this comment addresses two conclusions arising from a modeling study of chin that the contribution of mesoscale stratiform areas to large scale heat and moisture budgets at midlatitudes is small compared to that associated with deep convection and that longwave radiative processes are the cause of the transition zone a review of the literature and a comparison to another simulated squall line reaffirm the long standing result that mesoscale stratiform precipitation regions often contribute significantly to the large scale heating and moistening and demonstrate that longwave radiation is just one of the many factors that modify the kinematic and micro physical processes that form the transition zone

accuracy assessment of global barotropic ocean tide models the accuracy of state of the art global barotropic tide models is assessed using bottom pressure data coastal tide gauges satellite altimetry various geodetic data on antarctic ice shelves and independent tracked satellite orbit perturbations tide models under review include empirical purely hydrodynamic forward and assimilative dynamical i e constrained by observations ten dominant tidal constituents in the diurnal semidiurnal and quarter diurnal bands are considered since the last major model comparison project in 1997 models have improved markedly especially in shallow water regions and also in the deep ocean the root sum square differences between tide observations and the best models for eight major constituents are approximately 0 9 5 0 and 6 5 cm for pelagic shelf and coastal conditions respectively large intermodel discrepancies occur in high latitudes but testing in those regions is impeded by the paucity of high quality in situ tide records long wavelength components of models tested by analyzing satellite laser ranging measurements suggest that several models are comparably accurate for use in precise orbit determination but analyses of grace intersatellite ranging data show that all models are still imperfect on basin and subbasin scales especially near antarctica for the m2 constituent errors in purely hydrodynamic models are now almost comparable to the 1980 era schwiderski empirical solution indicating marked advancement in dynamical modeling assessing model accuracy using tidal currents remains problematic owing to uncertainties in in situ current meter estimates and the inability to isolate the barotropic mode velocity tests against both acoustic tomography and current meters do confirm that assimilative models perform better than purely hydrodynamic models

contribution of asian dust and volcanic material to the western philippine sea over the last 220 kyr as inferred from grain size and sr nd isotopes asian dust and volcanogenic materials are two major components in the northwestern pacific quantitatively distinguishing them and estimating their mass accumulation rates mars are very important for understanding regional and global climate change here we present the grain size composition of detrital sediments and the radiogenic strontium sr and neodymium nd isotopic compositions of different grain size fractions of detrital sediments that were recovered from the western philippine sea these new records show that the different grain size distributions can be associated with 1 asian dust from the western and central chinese deserts and chinese loess and 2 volcanogenic materials that were derived from the luzon islands the mars of this asian dust and volcanic materials are obtained by using weibull function fitting the mars of asian dust and volcanic materials are coupled with the glacial interglacial cycle these values are found to have been higher and more variable during the glacial period than during the interglacial period we argue that the strengthening aridity of the asian continent which is connected to solar insolation and ice volume variations from orbital eccentricity constitutes an important mechanism that drives the high mars of glacial dust in the western philippine sea the internal positive feedback of dust may be another important mechanism the significant increase in volcanic material during the glacial period was caused by sea level changes which were driven by the ice volume and solar insolation at high latitudes and by strengthened precipitation from the el nino southern oscillation enso which is driven by orbital eccentricity and precession cycles on the luzon islands

numerical modeling of the global semidiurnal tide in the present day and in the last glacial maximum 1 a hydrodynamic model incorporating a self consistent treatment of ocean self attraction and loading sal and a physically based parameterization of internal tide it drag is used to assess how accurately barotropic tides can be modeled without benefit of data and to explore tidal energetics in the last glacial maximum lgm m2 solutions computed at high resolution with present day bathymetry agree with estimates of elevations from satellite altimetry within 5 cm rms in the open ocean this accuracy and agreement with atlimetric estimates of energy dissipation are achieved only when sal and it drag are included in the model solutions are sensitive to perturbations to bathymetry and inaccuracies in available global databases probably account for much of the remaining error in modeled elevations the 100 m drop in sea level during the lgm results in significant changes in modeled m2 tides with some amplitudes in the north atlantic increasing by factors of 2 or more dissipation is also significantly changed by the drop in sea level if it drag estimated for the modern ocean is assumed dissipation increases by about 50 globally and almost triples in the deep ocean however it drag depends on ocean stratification which is poorly known for the lgm tests with modified it drag suggest that the tendency to a global increase in dissipation is a robust result but details are sensitive to stratification significant uncertainties about paleotides thus remain even in this comparatively simple case where bathymetry is well constrained

contrasting facies patterns in subtropical and temperate continental slope sediments inferences from east australian late quaternary records abstract studies of latest quaternary continental slope sediments at two localities on the east australian margin have revealed markedly different responses to late quaternary sea level fluctuations offshore of noosa in the sub tropics the sediment is predominantly a mixture of fine metastable carbonate siliciclastic material and pelagic carbonate important features of the stratigraphy include a siliciclastic dominated facies deposited relatively slowly during the last glacial lowstand sedimentation rate 8 cm ka and a calcareous facies rich in metastable carbonate deposited more rapidly during the late post glacial transgression sedimentation rates 15 24 cm ka highstand and transgressive sedimentation rates are greater than lowstand rates by a factor of 2 5 6 due to increased shelf carbonate productivity after flooding of the mid shelf off sydney in temperate latitudes continental slope sediment is largely a mixture of fine siliciclastic material and pelagic carbonate mean sedimentation rates range from 2 to 5 cm ka over the last four oxygen isotope stages with mean glacial interstadial rates higher than holocene rates by a factor of 1 36 this largely reflects the transfer of siliciclastic mud from the shelf to the slope during sea level regression in both localities facies changes on the slope are not related to specific sea level states e g lowstand facies transgressive facies etc but reflect instead the interaction of changing sea level with shelf morphology

sr c and o isotopes in carbonate nodules from the ganga plain evidence for recent abrupt rise in dissolved 87sr 86sr ratios of the ganga abstract the evolution of 87 sr 86 sr ratio of the ganga water during the past 100 ka has been reconstructed in this study the 87 sr 86 sr 13 c and 18 o values have been measured in carbonate nodules from different depths of two sediment cores raised from the indian institute of technology kanpur iitk campus 50 m long and jagdishpur jp 25 m long respectively the 87 sr 86 sr ratios of the carbonate nodules range from 0 7142 to 0 7189 in the iitk and 0 7142 to 0 7367 in the jp cores the nodules in general display significantly lower 87 sr 86 sr ratio compared to contemporary ganga river water at kanpur however values of 87 sr 86 sr ratio are observed in the nodules of the jp core near the surface are consistent with that of the present day ganga water at kanpur as well as groundwater samples from adjacent areas indicate recent abrupt increase in 87 sr 86 sr ratio of the ganga these findings are also consistent with the concomitant increase in 87 sr 86 sr ratio of silicates in contemporary sediments of the ganga at kanpur compared to that of past 100 ka the sudden rise of 87 sr 86 sr ratio of the ganga is probably due to increase in the relative proportion of sr from the lesser himalaya containing silicates and carbonates with higher 87 sr 86 sr ratio the cause for the recent increase in sr contribution from the lesser himalaya is not clear this could be due to enhanced agricultural activities and deforestation and or climatic variability during recent times resulting in more erosion in the lesser himalaya the 13 c and 18 o measured in the nodules from the iitk core vary from 6 8 to 1 6 and 8 3 to 5 4 respectively the co variation of 13 c and 18 o suggest the impact of paleoclimate paleovegetation petrography and chemical composition of carbonate nodules indicate little or no diagenetic alteration

the timing of linear dune activity in the strzelecki and tirari deserts australia abstract linear dunes occupy more than one third of the australian continent but the timing of their formation is poorly understood in this study we collected 82 samples from 26 sites across the strzelecki and tirari deserts in the driest part of central australia to provide an optically stimulated luminescence chronology for these dunefields the dunes preserve up to four stratigraphic horizons bounded by palaeosols which represent evidence for multiple periods of reactivation punctuated by episodes of increased environmental stability dune activity took place in episodes around 73 66 35 32 22 18 and 14 10 ka intermittent partial mobilisation persisted at other times throughout the last 75 ka and dune activity appears to have intensified during the late holocene dune construction occurred when sediment was available for aeolian transport in the strzelecki and tirari deserts this coincided with cold arid conditions during marine isotope stage mis 4 late mis 3 and mis 2 and the warm dry climates of the late pleistocene holocene transition period and late holocene localised influxes of sediment on active floodplains and lake floors during the relatively more humid periods of mis 5 also resulted in dune formation the timing of widespread dune reactivation coincided with glaciation in southeastern australia along with cooler temperatures in the adjacent oceans and antarctica

estimating open ocean barotropic tidal dissipation the hawaiian ridge the generalized inverse of a regional model is used to estimate barotropic tidal dissipation along the hawaiian ridge the model based on the linear shallow water equations incorporates parameterizations for the dissipation of energy via friction in the bottom boundary layer and form drag due to internal waves generated at topographic slopes sea surface height data from 364 orbit cycles of the ocean topography experiment topex poseidon satellite mission are used to perform inversions at eight diurnal and semidiurnal tidal frequencies it is estimated that the barotropic m2 tide loses energy at a rate of 19 gw of which 88 is lost within 250 km of the ridge presumably via conversion to the internal or baroclinic tide uncertainty in the assumed model error and wave drag in the forward model suggest that m2 dissipation values from 18 to 25 gw are consistent with the altimetric observations other barotropic tidal constituents are estimated to lose a total of 5 7 gw the spatial distribution of barotropic dissipation along the ridge is similar to that inferred from three dimensional primitive equation models and it is largely insensitive to details of assumed model and data errors dissipation at semidiurnal frequencies is most intense at the french frigate shoals with lesser but significant contributions at other sites diurnal tidal dissipation is concentrated to the east of the french frigate shoals at the gardner pinnacles further work with threedimensional models will be necessary to determine the fate of the energy that is removed from the barotropic tide

ocean tides and heinrich events climate varied enormously over the most recent ice age1 for example large pulses of ice rafted debris2 originating mainly from the labrador sea3 were deposited into the north atlantic at roughly 7 000 year intervals with global climatic implications3 here we show that ocean tides within the labrador sea were exceptionally large over the period spanning these huge abrupt ice movements which are known as heinrich events we propose that tides played a catalytic role in liberating iceberg armadas during that time

late quaternary erosion events in lowland and mid altitude tasmania in relation to climate change and first human arrival abstract the establishment of a chronology of landscape forming events in lowland and mid altitude tasmania essential for assessing the relative importance of climatic and human influences on erosion and for assessing present erosion risk has been limited by the small number of ages obtained and limitations of dating methods in this paper we critically assess previous tasmanian studies list published radiocarbon ages considered to be dependable present new radiocarbon and thermoluminescence tl ages for 25 sites around tasmania and consider the evidence for the hypotheses that erosion processes at low and mid altitudes have been 1 purely climatically controlled and 2 influenced both by climatic and anthropogenic increased fire frequency effects a total of 94 dependable finite ages calibrated for radiocarbon and as measured for tl and optically stimulated luminescence osl determinations are listed for deposits comprising dunes colluvium alluvium and loess like aeolian deposits two fall in the 100 ka period 15 fall in the period 65 35 ka and 77 fall in the period 35 0 3 ka there was a sustained increase in erosion recorded in the period 35 15 ka as reflected by a greater number of dated aeolian deposits during this period we considered three possible biases that may have affected the age distribution obtained the limitations of radiocarbon dating sampling bias and preservation bias sampling bias may have favoured more recent dune strata but radiocarbon dating and preservation biases are unlikely to have significantly distorted the age distribution obtained long but intermittent aeolian deposition is recorded at two sites southwood b c 59 28 ka and dunlin dune c 29 14 ka but there is no evidence of regional loess deposits such as found in new zealand the timing of increased erosion in tasmania between 35 and 30 ka approximately coincides with the intermittent ten fold increase of dust accumulation between 33 and 30 ka in the antarctic dome c ice core the absence of widespread erosion before 35 ka the abrupt increase of erosion around this time the frequent association of erosion products with charcoal the arrival of people in tasmania at c 40 cal ka and the known use of fires by aborigines to maintain areas of non climax vegetation suggest that ecosystem disturbance by anthropogenic fires in a drier climate than that presently prevailing may have contributed to erosion in lowland and mid altitude tasmania after 35 ka thus the tasmanian erosion record provides circumstantial support for the proposition that human dispersal in southeast australia was accompanied by significant ecological change

the evolution of tides and tidal dissipation over the past 21 000 years the 120 m sea level drop during the last glacial maximum lgm 18 22 kyr bp had a profound impact on the global tides and lead to an increased tidal dissipation rate especially in the north atlantic here we present new simulations of the evolution of the global tides from the lgm to present for the dominating diurnal and semidiurnal constituents the simulations are undertaken in time slices spanning 500 1000 years due to uncertainties in the location of the grounding line of the antarctic ice sheets during the last glacial simulations are carried out for two different grounding line scenarios our results replicate previously reported enhancements in dissipation and amplitudes of the semidiurnal tide during lgm and subsequent deglaciation and they provide a detailed picture of the large global changes in m2 tidal dynamics occurring over the deglaciation period we show that antarctic ice dynamics and the associated grounding line location have a large influence on global semidiurnal tides whereas the diurnal tides mainly experience regional changes and are not impacted by grounding line shifts in antarctica

origin of detrital fluxes in the southeast indian ocean during the last climatic cycles because of a close relationship between detrital flux variations and magnetic susceptibility ms flux ms cm 3 of bulk sediment multiplied by the linear sedimentation rate variations in the southeast indian basin of the southern ocean ms flux profiles have been used to examine the spatial and temporal detrital flux changes in this basin during the last climatic cycle results indicate a general increase in detrital material input during the coldest periods suggesting a widespread phenomenon at least on the basin scale mineralogical data geochemical data and 87sr 86sr isotopic ratios have been used to determine the origin and transport mechanisms responsible for increased detrital flux during glacial periods mineralogical and geochemical data show that these glacial highs are due to increases in both kerguelen crozet volcanic and antarctic detrital inputs the 87sr 86sr isotopic composition of the 45 m fraction indicates that the kerguelen crozet province contributes to at least 50 of the coarse particule input to the west this contribution decreases eastward to reach less than 10 these tracers clearly indicate that the crozet kerguelen province was a major source region of detrital in the western part of the basin during glacial times in contrast material of antarctic origin is well represented in the whole basin fine and coarse fractions because of the minor amount of coarse particles in the sediments volcanic particles from kerguelen and crustal particles from antarctica have most probably been transported by the antarctic bottom water current and or the circumpolar deepwater current during glacial periods as is the case today nevertheless the presence of coarse particles even in low amount suggests also a transport by ice rafting sea ice and icebergs originated from both kerguelen and antarctic sources however the relative importance of both hydrographic and ice rafting modes of transport cannot be identified accurately with our data during low sea level stands glacial maximum periods increasing instability and erosion of the continental platform and shallow plateaus could have resulted in a more efficient transfer of crustal and volcano detrital material to the southeast indian basin at the same time extension of the grounded ice shelves over the continental margins and increase in the erosion rate of the antarctic ice sheet could have induced a greater input of ice rafted detritus ird to southern ocean basins enhancement of the circumpolar deepwater current strength might have also carried a more important flux of detrital material from kerguelen however an increase in the bottom water flow is not necessarily required

ongoing glacial isostatic contributions to observations of sea level change studies determining the contribution of water fluxes to sea level rise typically remove the ongoing effects of glacial isostatic adjustment gia unfortunately use of inconsistent terminology between various disciplines has caused confusion as to how contributions from gia should be removed from altimetry and grace measurements in this paper we review the physics of the gia corrections applicable to these measurements and discuss the differing nomenclature between the gia literature and other studies of sea level change we then examine a range of estimates for the gia contribution derived by varying the earth and ice models employed in the prediction we find similar to early studies that gia produces a small compared to the observed value but systematic contribution to the altimetry estimates with a maximum range of 0 15 to 0 5 mm yr 1 moreover we also find that the gia contribution to the mass change measured by grace over the ocean is significant in this regard we demonstrate that confusion in nomenclature between the terms absolute sea level and geoid has led to an overestimation of this contribution in some previous studies a component of this overestimation is the incorrect inclusion of the direct effect of the contemporaneous perturbations of the rotation vector which leads to a factor of two larger value of the degree two order one spherical harmonic component of the model results aside from this confusion uncertainties in earth model structure and ice sheet history yield a spread of up to 1 4 mm yr 1 in the estimates of this contribution however even if the ice and earth models were perfectly known the processing techniques used in grace data analysis can introduce variations of up to 0 4 mm yr 1 thus we conclude that a single valued gia correction is not appropriate for sea level studies based on gravity data each study must estimate a bound on the gia correction consistent with the adopted data analysis scheme

experiments in reconstructing twentieth century sea levels abstract one approach to reconstructing historical sea level from the relatively sparse tide gauge network is to employ empirical orthogonal functions eofs as interpolatory spatial basis functions the eofs are determined from independent global data generally sea surface heights from either satellite altimetry or a numerical ocean model the problem is revisited here for sea level since 1900 a new approach to handling the tide gauge datum problem by direct solution offers possible advantages over the method of integrating sea level differences with the potential of eventually adjusting datums into the global terrestrial reference frame the resulting time series of global mean sea levels appears fairly insensitive to the adopted set of eofs in contrast charts of regional sea level anomalies and trends are very sensitive to the adopted set of eofs especially for the sparser network of gauges in the early 20th century the reconstructions appear especially suspect before 1950 in the tropical pacific while this limits some applications of the sea level reconstructions the sensitivity does appear adequately captured by formal uncertainties all our solutions show regional trends over the past five decades to be fairly uniform throughout the global ocean in contrast to trends observed over the shorter altimeter era consistent with several previous estimates the global sea level rise since 1900 is 1 70 0 26 mm yr 1 the global trend since 1995 exceeds 3 mm yr 1 which is consistent with altimeter measurements but this large trend was possibly also reached between 1935 and 1950

dust accumulation in the new zealand region since the last glacial maximum abstract loess is widespread in new zealand deposits 1 m thick cover 10 of the land area it has mainly been derived from dust deflated from river floodplains during the last glacial maximum lgm dust accumulation continues today downwind of major river floodplains most loess is quartzofeldspathic having its origins in mesozoic and neogene rocks of the axial ranges and hill country in the central north island there are deposits of volcanic loess derived from aeolian reworking of tephras loess morphology and properties vary greatly due to diverse parent materials post depositional climates and drainage conditions the widespread 26 170 cal yr kawakawa tephra provides a datum for calculating mass accumulation rates mars rates are mostly within the range 70 150 g m 2 yr 1 but enhanced deposition at one site gave a rate of 360 g m 2 yr 1 contemporary mars of 40 100 g m 2 yr 1 were determined for distances of 1 75 0 4 km downwind of the rakaia river lgm mars of quartz for two marine cores p69 q858 drilled 100 300 km east of new zealand are 40 70 g m 2 yr 1 the mar of the aeolian component of p69 is estimated to be ca 15 g m 2 yr 1

paleolimnological evidence for the onset and termination of glacial aridity from lake tanganyika tropical east africa geochemical and sedimentological data in a continuous 60 000 year sediment core record from the kalya horst region of central lake tanganyika provide a detailed history of paleoclimate mediated weathering and overflow events from upstream lake kivu univariate elemental profiles bivariate elemental ratios and multivariate analyses of chemical trends show variations between the dry late pleistocene 32 18 ka cal yr bp and the wetter conditions that both preceded and post date that interval this record places important new constraints on the timing of aridity in east africa during the high latitude last glacial maximum lgm based on significant decreases in magnetic susceptibility and soluble cation concentrations coinciding with biogenic silica elemental indicatorsintheoldestportionofthesedimentaryrecord 60 50kacalyrbp characterizethisintervalasacomparatively wetperiod similar to modern conditions our record demonstrates that the ensuing transition toward arid conditions in tropical africa during high latitude glaciation was a two staged event with intermediate levels of aridity occurring from 50 32 ka cal yr bp followed by intense aridity from 32 18 ka cal yr bp the initiation of inflow from upstream lake kivu into lake tanganyika is evidenced at 10 6 ka cal yr bp through its influence on both elemental profiles mg ca and through its effect on 87 sr 86 sr increases in elemental mg ca sr concentrations coincide with the timing of the lake kivu overflow metal geochemistry suggests that the overflow from lake kivu into lake tanganyika may have ceased between 8 and 6 ka cal yr bp suggesting a period of middle holocene aridity in east africa 2007 elsevier b v all rights reserved

structure and timing of the last deglaciation oxygen isotope evidence foraminiferal oxygen isotope data from 24 tropical atlantic sediment cores constrained by 77 14c dates are stacked to form a composite record of isotopic termination 1 this record indicates that most of the isotopic transition at the end of the last ice age occurred between 14 ka bp and 6 ka bp minor isotopic expression of deglaciation is permitted as early as 16 ka bp but the most rapid rate of change occurred between 14 ka bp and 12 ka bp three steps of maximum change are present although they are close to the statistical limits of detection in the composite record the clear presence of the steps in individual records suggests that they are real we estimate their timing at 14 12 ka bp termination 1 a 10 9 ka bp termination 1 b and 8 6 ka bp termination 1 c centering of the termination near 11 ka bp is consistent with the milankovitch hypothesis that high summer insolation caused deglaciation in detail however maximum rates of change prior to the 11 ka bp insolation extreme and the inferred steps require additional mechanisms controlling the tempo of glacial interglacial climate change steps equivalent to those in 18o have not been detected in ice margin retreat data steps in the isotopic transition if real may record thinning of the ice sheets not accompanied by loss of area alternation between near equilibrium and near stagnant ice sheet profiles during deglaciation is hypothesized perhaps due to calving and unstable down draw of the ice sheets followed by partial re equilibration significant problems remain the effects of temperature on the isotope record are only partially constrained presently available data allow only semi quantitative intercalibration of ice volume sea level and isotopic estimates of glaciation

pleistocene sea levels from raised coral reefs of haiti the elevations and ages of a sequence of three uplifted pleistocene coral reefs on the northwest peninsula of haiti have been determined with the assignment of a sea level of 6 meters relative to the present day at 130 000 years before present and constant uplift of the reefs the data indicate that sea level stood 10 and 13 meters at 108 000 and 81 000 years before present respectively these results are in substantial agreement with those reported for barbados and new guinea and support the hypothesis of constant uplift for each area sea level data from raised reefs indicate that the interglacial marine oxygen isotope oscillations during oxygen isotope stage 5 are a result of 30 percent ice volume effects and 70 percent temperature effects

improved modeling of sea level patterns by incorporating self attraction and loading 1 we implement the effects of gravitational self attraction and loading sal into a global baroclinic ocean circulation model and investigate effects on sea level patterns ocean circulation and density distributions we compute sal modifications as an additional force on the water masses at every time step by decomposing the field of ocean bottom pressure anomalies into spherical harmonic functions and then applying love numbers to account for the elastic properties of the solid earth considering sal in the postprocessing turns out to be insufficient especially in coastal waters and on subweekly time scales where sal modifies local sea level by around 0 6 0 8 cm on average in the open ocean changes mostly remain around 0 3 cm modifications of water velocities as well as of heat and salt distributions are modeled yet they are small simple parameterizations of sal effects currently used in a number of ocean circulation models suffer from the process s inhomogeneity in space and time these parameterizations improve the modeled sea level patterns but fail to reproduce sal impacts on circulation and density distributions we therefore suggest to explicitly consider the full sal effect in ocean circulation models especially when investigating sea level variations faster than around 4 days

uranium series dating of fen peat horizons from pit nachtigall in northern germany abstract peat and other terrestrial sediments are important archives of climate forcing this study discusses the numerical age determination of stratigraphically important quaternary sequences from clay pit nachtigall near holzminden in northern germany which have been the subject of debate concerning their chronological classification since they were first described by grupe in 1929 uranium series dating 230 th u of different organic horizons as well as sedimentology including loss on ignition loi and palynology was carried out to set up a more reliable chronological framework for the weser river area 230 th u ages were calculated using an isochron approach with the leachate leachate method for chemical preparation open system requirements and specification of sample selection criteria for organic samples are investigated by determination of uranium and thorium composition of the rim layers different organic sediments are investigated the organic deposits from nachtigall show middle pleistocene 230 th u ages ranging from 227 9 8 ka to 201 15 13 ka and appear to represent a warm temperate phase preceding the eemian interglacial mis 5e and the drenthe stadial mis 6 indicating a correlation with marine isotope substage mis 7c these results are in good agreement with the investigation of the pollen spectra indicating a correlation with a warm stage within the lower saalian complex

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

mid pliocene warmth stronger greenhouse and stronger conveyor abstract three million years ago prior to the onset of northern hemisphere glaciation global mean temperatures may have been as much as 3 5 c warmer than at present we present evidence based on the carbon isotopic composition of marine organic matter that atmospheric co2 levels at this time were on average only about 35 higher than the preindustrial value of 280 ppm we also present carbon isotopic evidence for stronger thermohaline circulation in the atlantic ocean during the warmest intervals and propose that the north atlantic conveyor belt may act as a positive feedback to global warming by enhancing sea ice retreat and decreasing high latitude albedo based on our results it seems unlikely that the mid pliocene warm period was a doubled co2 world

on the occurrence of the giant diatom ethmodiscus rex in an 80 ka record from a deep sea core southeast of sumatra indonesia implications for tropical palaeoceanography environmental changes recognised in a 80 ka record obtained from a deep sea core taken at a water depth of 2542 m offshore southeast sumatra conclusively indicate for the first time that blooms of the giant diatom ethmodiscus rex occurred in the indian ocean during the last glacial period with the largest numbers coinciding with the last glacial maximum previous occurrences of e rex in both the indian and the western pacific oceans could not be dated due to the paucity of foraminifers and contamination by diagenetic carbonate found in association with the diatoms we use a reliable n 18 o record to date the core the interpretation of terrigenous clays and trace metals in the core sediments together with carbon isotopes measured on planktic foraminifers suggests that conditions that favoured the diatomaceous blooms were a combination of changes in hydrological regime in the region caused by a substantial increase in salinity near the surface and coinciding with a rise in nitrate levels near the surface no major upwelling was recorded during glacial times during the glacial period the indonesian archipelago as other tropical regions was much drier thus preventing a low salinity cap to occur at the surface of the oceans in contrast with the holocene in addition monsoonal winds were absent thus permitting the ocean to be permanently stratified with high levels of silica and nutrients near the surface the glacial mode of productivity represented by the blooms of e rex added considerable amounts of biogenic silica to the sediment but is not reflected by classic productivity proxies like biogenic barium therefore we have to distinguish between a classic productivity mode as observed in the photic zone today and a glacial deep productivity dominated by e rex which may have utilised nutrients from a wider depth range 9 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

high elevation paleoenvironmental change during mis 6 4 in the central rockies of colorado as determined from pollen analysis abstract paleoecological studies from rocky mountain usa high elevations encompassing the previous interglacial mis 5e are rare the 10 m composite profile from the ziegler reservoir fossil site 2705 m asl of central colorado allows us to determine paleoenvironments from marine oxygen isotope stages mis 6 4 using pollen zones that are approximately equivalent to marine oxygen isotope stages during pollen zone pz 6 time pollen assemblages dominated by artemisia sagebrush suggest that alpine tundra or steppe occurred nearby the transition to pz 5e was characterized by a rapid increase in tree pollen initially picea spruce and pinus pine but also quercus oak and pseudotsuga menziesii douglas fir non arboreal pollen nap types increased during pz 5d while abies fir and juniperus juniper increased during pz 5c pollen evidence suggests that temperatures during pz 5b were as cold as during pz 6 with the site again surrounded by alpine tundra picea dominated during pz 5a before the onset of cooler conditions during pz 4 the mis 6 mis 5e transition here was similar to the mis 2 mis 1 transition at other rocky mountain sites however the ziegler reservoir pollen record contains evidence suggesting unexpected climatic trends at this site including a warmer than expected mis 5d and cooler than expected mis 5b

a review and comparison of fracture mineral investigations and their application to radioactive waste disposal abstract a compilation and comparison of fracture mineral studies from the canadian and fennoscandian shields and the french massif central shows many similarities indicating larger external control over fracture mineral deposition with different rock types exerting local controls the sites investigated represent a wide range of geological settings and host rock types ranging from felsic intrusive and extrusives to ultramafic intrusives and volcanics that span an age range from 2 5 to 0 36 ga typical fracture minerals found at canadian shield sites include calcite quartz chlorite and clays and these do not appear to be dependant on age erosional depth or geological environment the fennoscandian shield has a much larger variety of fracture filling minerals with epidote zeolites prehnite fluorite pyrrhotite fe oxides serpentine graphite magnesite and barite in addition to the minerals typically found at canadian shield sites the major control on fracture mineral type is most likely variations in rock type and fluid chemistry and temperature the c and o isotopic range of calcite is very similar among sites late stage hydrothermal calcite with strongly depleted 18o values is common at many sites all of the sites have calcite with 18o isotopic values in the range of 5 to 20 pdb indicative of formation from meteoric water or basinal brines that have undergone varying degrees of water rock interaction one canadian and a few swedish sites have calcite in the shallower portion of the rock that shows isotopic evidence of dissolution and re precipitation in equilibrium with the present day waters there are some striking similarities in fluid inclusion data among sites most sites have an elevated temperature 100 300 c low salinity group of fluid inclusions within the nacl h2o system and a lower temperature 50 150 c higher salinity group of fluid inclusions within the nacl cacl2 h2o system fluid inclusion density plots show some evidence of simple cooling but most sites show two or more fluids were responsible for calcite formation the origin of most of these fluids was magmatic hydrothermal or meteoric water that had undergone varying degrees of water rock interaction but basinal brines and seawater were also possible sources several techniques and methods have been used to further characterize calcites strontium isotopes and rare earth elements can be useful to recognize different families of calcite uranium th dating has found many old calcites beyond the useful range of the technique but also some relatively young calcites that may be related to interglacial periods where fluid inclusion data exists formation temperatures were not consistent with a glacial water origin crush and leach experiments with ion and gas chromatography and thermal ion mass spectrometry have characterized inclusion fluids but special care must be used to ensure only one generation is sampled at a time cathodoluminescence and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectrometry has been useful in identifying multiple fluid generations within single calcite samples laser ablation and raman spectrometry are additional techniques that are useful in determining individual fluid inclusion chemistry and isotopes

change from atlantic type to pacific type carbonate stratigraphy in the middle pliocene equatorial pacific ocean a paleomagnetically dated piston core from the equatorial pacific ocean v28 179 contains levels of highest carbonate percentage in association with lower 18o values in early pliocene sediments this relationship is typical of the atlantic during the quaternary and is thus referred to as an atlantic type carbonate stratigraphy the change from an atlantic type to a pacific type stratigraphy high carbonate glacial episodes appears to have occurred during the earliest gauss magnetic chron 3 18 3 41 ma of middle pliocene age and may be related to the development of northern hemisphere glaciation samples deposited prior to the development of northern hemisphere glaciation in v28 179 have a significant proportion of low frequency 400 ka period variance in both the benthic o18 and carbonate spectra and an atlantic type correlation both the oxygen isotopic and the carbonate spectra of v28 179 have frequency specific correlation coherency with the calculated pliocene record of the eccentricity of earth s orbit thus orbital parameters may have affected equatorial pacific sedimentation in the pliocene the change from atlantic type to pacific type carbonate stratigraphy in the middle pliocene may have been related to a change in the dominant frequency of variance of carbonate oscillations related to orbital parameters and or to intensification of antarctic bottom water circulation during the middle pliocene near the base of the gauss chron

a high resolution authigenic 10be 9be record of geomagnetic moment variations over the last 300 ka from sedimentary cores of the portuguese margin a high resolution study of authigenic be isotopes 10be and 9be combined with continuous relative paleointensity records has been performed along the same marine sedimentary sequences from the portuguese margin n e atlantic covering the past 300 ka in order to assess relationships between geomagnetic moment variations and 10be production rate variations a carefull examination of the various ways of taking into account environmental disturbing effects on the authigenic 10be concentration leads to the conclusion that the most reliable proxy of cosmonuclide production rates is presently the authigenic 10be 9be ratio eight intervals of significant authigenic 10be 9be enhancement evidence geomagnetic moment drops related to global paleomagnetic excursions some being already admitted others being proposed as new geomagnetic features since contrarily to sedimentary magnetic remanence the authigenic 10be 9be records dipole moment variations without significant acquisition delay it provides better constraints on their timing comparison of 10be 9be and benthic 18o records from the same cores suggests that dipole moment lows preferentially occured during or at the end of interglacial episodes with a quasi period of 100 ka

a paleoclimate model of northern hemisphere ice sheets abstract a model for predicting the growth and decay of ice sheets based on the astronomical theory of climate change is presented the purpose of the study in part is to isolate the role of the ice sheet physics and earth response under varying ice load by simplifying to the extreme the role of the hydrosphere atmosphere ice sheet physics and the response of the lithosphere asthenosphere under the ice load are modeled explicitly insolation anomalies taken at a fixed latitude directly force latitudinal displacement of the snow line accumulation rate a and ablation rate a evaluated at mean sea level are specificed as external constants a a decrease linearly with ice sheet elevation rough tuning of the model to the general shape of the ice volume record of the last two major glacials determines the external constants model predictions of the ages of several events in the last major glaciation compare well with the radiological ages the six glacial terminatios i vi over the last 600 000 yr are identified and the predicted ages compare reasonably well with the 18 o record for two deep sea cores a direct comparison of model power spectra of ice volume as a function of period with spectra of the 18 o record shows apparent underprediction of power near 100 000 yr when a quantitative but heuristic method for taking into account the red noise spectrum evident in the geological records is used a much more favorable comparison is possible the model prediction lends support to the hypothesis that the nonlinearity of the ice sheet physics is responsible for the 100 000 yr periodicity in the geological record of the late pleistocene

the late quaternary glaciations as the response of a three component feedback system to earth orbital forcing abstract a climatic feedback system previously described consisting of three prognostic nonlinear equations governing the mass of ice sheets the mass of marine and continental marginal ice and the mean ocean temperature is forced by a representation of the effects of external earth orbital variations with reasonable amplitudes for the eccentricity obliquity and precession forcing the free oscillatory solutions of major period near 100 kyr can be modified in a way that substantially agrees with the 18o derived observations of ice mass evolution in particular a proper structure variance spectrum and phase lock of the major variations are obtained over the last 400 kyr an analysis of the sensitivity of these results to variations in the model parameters and to random perturbations shows that the solution is robust for small changes in all but a few of the equation coefficients concomitant variability in the marine ice mass ocean temperature and net radiation at the top of the atmospher

low latitude dusty events vs high latitude icy heinrich events it has been proposed that tropical events could have participated in the triggering of the classic high latitude iceberg discharge heinrich events he we explore low latitude heinrich events equivalents at high resolution in a piston core recovered from the tropical north western african margin they are characterized by an increase of total dust lacustrine diatoms and fibrous lacustrine clay minerals thus low latitude events clearly reflect severe aridity events that occurred over africa at the saharan latitudes probably induced by southward shifts of the inter tropical convergence zone at a first approximation it seems that there is more likely synchronicity between the high latitude heinrich events hes and low latitude events lle rather than asynchronous behaviours

alkenone paleothermometry biological lessons from marine sediment records off western south america an empirical global core top calibration that relates the alkenone unsaturation index u k 0 37 to mean annual sst masst is statistically the same as that defined for a subarctic pacific strain of emiliania huxleyi ccmp1742 grown exponentially in batch culture under isothermal conditions although both equations have been applied widely for paleosst reconstruction uncertainty still stems from two key ecological factors variability in the details of biosynthesis among genetically distinct alkenone producing strains and impacts of nonthermal physiological growth factors on u k 0 37 new batch culture experiments with ccmp1742 here reveal that u k 0 37 diverge systematically from the core top calibration in response to nutrient depletion and light deprivation two physiological stresses experienced by phytoplankton populations in the real ocean other aspects of alkenone alkenoate composition also respond to these stresses and may serve as signatures of such effects providing an opportunity to detect understand and potentially correct for such impacts on the geologic record a test case documents that sediments from the southeast pacific display the alkenone alkenoate compositional signature characteristic of cells physiologically stressed by light deprivation such an observation could be explained if marine snow provided a major vector of sedimentation for these biomarkers late pleistocene u k 0 37 records in the southeast pacific yield plausible paleotemperature histories of ice age cooling but ice age alkenone alkenoate signatures fall outside the range of modern calibration samples of similar u k 0 37 they better match core top samples deposited beneath waters characterized by much cooler masst suggesting key features of ice age ecology for alkenone producing haptophytes were different from today and that the u k 0 37 index taken alone may misgauge the total range of ice age cooling at these locations analysis of the full spectrum of alkenone alkenoate compositions preserved in sediments opens up a new opportunity that may improve the accuracy of paleotemperature estimates based on simple u k 0

carbonate time series of the quaternary and late miocene sediments in the pacific ocean a spectral comparison abstract the variance of the quaternary carbonate record of core rc11 209 from the equatorial pacific is almost twice as large as that for the upper miocene of dsdp site 158 from the same region spectral analysis of the carbonate time series shows that the miocene record is dominated by very low frequency components with a concentration of variance near the frequency corresponding to a period of about 400 kyr the quaternary record is also dominated by low frequency components but has in addition concentrations of variance spectral peaks at frequencies corresponding to periods near 100 and 40 kyr cross spectral analysis indicates that both records are coherent with the calculated record of eccentricity of the earth s orbit and that the quaternary record in addition shows coherence with the calculated record of axial tilt these variations in the earth s orbital parameters can then be used to tune the time scales of these two records based on the similarity in the amount of variance in the two records near the 400 kyr period and the observed relationship between carbonate fluctuations and variations in global ice volume as indicated by oxygen isotope measurements it is proposed that the dominant 400 kyr cycle has been associated directly or indirectly with long term fluctuations in the antarctic ice cap since its formation in mid miocene times the major difference in the quaternary carbonate spectrum lies in the marked increase in variance at frequencies associated with the 100 kyr period this increase is thought to be linked directly or indirectly with glacial to interglacial fluctuations of the northern hemisphere ice sheets

ontogenetic effects on stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in tests of live rose bengal stained benthic foraminifera from the pakistan continental margin abstract we determined the stable oxygen and carbon isotopic composition of live rose bengal stained tests belonging to different size classes of two benthic foraminiferal species from the pakistan continental margin samples were taken at two sites with water depths of about 135 and 275 m corresponding to the upper boundary and upper part of the core region of the oxygen minimum zone omz for uvigerina ex gr uvigerina semiornata and bolivina aff bolivina dilatata 13c and 18o values increased significantly with increasing test size in the case of uvigerina ex gr u semiornata 13c increased linearly by about 0 105 for each 100 m increment in test size whereas 18o increased by 0 02 to 0 06 per 100 m increment for bolivina aff b dilatata the relationship between test size and stable isotopic composition is better described by logarithmic equations a strong positive linear correlation is observed between 18o and 13c values of both taxa with a constant ratio of 18o and 13c values close to 2 1 this suggests that the strong ontogenetic effect is mainly caused by kinetic isotope fractionation during co2 uptake our data underline the necessity to base longer 18o and 13c isotope records derived from benthic foraminifera on size windows of 100 m or less this is already common practice in down core isotopic studies of planktonic foraminifera

a high resolution study of tides in the delaware bay past conditions and future scenarios 1 tides in the delaware bay usa have been modeled from 7000 years before present 7 ka to the present day and for selected future sea level rise scenarios 100 years 300 years historic bathymetries were constructed through use of glacial isostatic adjustment models and a very high spatial resolution 100 m was used at the shoreline future bathymetries were obtained by extrapolating these glacial isostatic adjustment models and applying an additional eustatic sea level rise it was found that tides in the lower bay have remained fairly constant through time but that tides in the upper bay have increased steadily from about 4 ka to the present day a nearly 100 increase in total the future runs demonstrated spatially complex behavior with tidal range changes of up to 10

quaternary normal faulting in southeastern sicily italy a seismic source for the 1693 large earthquake summary we present geological and morphological data combined with an analysis of seismic reflection lines across the ionian ovshore zone and information on historical earthquakes in order to yield new constraints on active faulting in southeastern sicily this region one of the most seismically active of the mediterranean is avected by wnw ese regional extension producing normal faulting of the southern edge of the siculo calabrian rift zone our data describe two systems of quaternary normal faults characterized by diverent ages and related to distinct tectonic processes the older nw se trending normal fault segments developed up to 400 kyr ago and striking perpendicular to the main front of the maghrebian thrust belt bound the small basins occurring along the eastern coast of the hyblean plateau the younger fault system is represented by prominent nnw sse trending normal fault segments and extends along the ionian ovshore zone following the ne sw trending avola and rosolini ispica normal faults these faults are characterized by vertical slip rates of 0 7 3 3 mm yr 1 and might be associated with the large seismic events of january 1693 we suggest that the main shock of the january 1693 earthquakes m 7 could be related to a 45 km long normal fault with a right lateral component of motion a long term net slip rate of about 3 7 mm yr 1 is calculated and a recurrence interval of about 550 50 yr is proposed for large events similar to that of january 1693

isotope stage 5 130 74 ka in greenland a review abstract marine and glacigene deposits dated with varying degrees of certainty to isotope stage 5 130 74 ka are exposed in coastal cliffs in 18 areas and localities in northern and eastern greenland dating methods include thermoluminescence tl u th methods and correlation with the deep sea record amino acid parameters are used for correlation between localities deposits from the last interglaciation isotope substage 5e are rare and have been found only at three localities in both west and east greenland their mollusc and foraminifer faunas indicate more vigorous sea surface circulation and sea surface temperatures some degrees higher than known from the holocene during this warm period ice sheet growth began in northwest greenland the ice sheet reached its maximum for the last ice age during the succeeding phase provisionally correlated with isotope substage 5d this was followed by a new warm period with increased influx of warm subarctic water and high summer temperatures on land provisionally correlated with isotope substage 5a in east greenland the observations indicate a more complex ice sheet history the record from greenland is very similar to that obtained in adjacent coastal areas of the high arctic implying that the rapid shifts from warm to cold during isotope stage 5 were especially conducive to the formation of the embryonic north american and scandinavian ice sheets at high northern latitudes probably because the pulses of warm water were required to advect sufficient moisture into these areas to allow the growth of continental ice sheets

rock varnish microlamination dating of late quaternary geomorphic features in the drylands of western usa abstract varnish microlamination vml dating is a correlative age determination technique that can be used to date and correlate various geomorphic features in deserts in this study we establish a generalized late quaternary i e 0 300 ka varnish layering sequence for the drylands of western usa and tentatively correlate it with the specmap oxygen isotope record we then use this climatically correlated varnish layering sequence as a correlative dating tool to determine surface exposure ages for late quaternary geomorphic features in the study region vml dating of alluvial fan deposits in death valley of eastern california indicates that during the mid to late pleistocene 5 15 ky long aggradation events occurred during either wet or dry climatic periods and that major climate shifts between glacial and interglacial conditions may be the pacemaker for alteration of major episodes of fan aggradation during the holocene interglacial time however 0 5 1 ky long brief episodes of fan deposition may be linked to short periods of relatively wet climate vml dating of alluvial desert pavements in death valley and the mojave desert reveals that pavements can be developed rapidly

global tidal impacts of large scale ice sheet collapses recent studies show that the glaciers draining both the west antarctic and the greenland ice sheets are experiencing an accelerated ice loss highlighting the possibility of large scale ice sheet retreat and sea level rise in the coming centuries and millennia these sea level changes would vary spatially and could significantly alter global tides as the latter are highly dependent on bathymetry or water column thickness under ice shelves and basin shape this paper investigates how the principal semi diurnal m2 tidal amplitudes and energy dissipation respond to the non uniform sea level changes induced by complete ice sheet collapses the sea level changes are calculated using gravitationally self consistent sea level theory and the tides are simulated using an established tidal model results from the simulations show global and spatially heterogeneous changes in tidal amplitudes in addition pronounced changes in tidal energy dissipation occur in both the open ocean and in shelf seas also altering the location of tidal mixing fronts these changes have the potential to impact ocean mixing and hence large scale currents and climate patterns and the contribution of shelf sea to the global carbon cycle the new results highlight the importance of considering changes in the tides in predictions of future climate and reconstructions of past climate phases such as the last interglacial

glacial isostatic adjustment and the anomalous tide gauge record of eastern north america sea level variations as recorded by the global network of tide gauges represent a rich data set for studying a wide range of natural and anthropogenic phenomena such as the sea level rise induced by possible global warming for this purpose long term sea level trends must be corrected for the contaminating effects of continuing glacial isostatic adjustment1 5 gia the numerical correction procedure has for sites on the east coast of north america yielded a set of highly anomalous sea level rates characterized by systematic geographical trends2 4 5 we demonstrate that these trends are a consequence of inadequacies in the previous standard numerical prediction for gia in particular we find that the well known trends in the gia corrected tide gauge rates are eliminated if the lower mantle viscosity of the earth model used in the gia prediction is increased this result obviates the need to explain the anomalous trend as a manifestation of gulf stream ocean circulation4 or neotectonic processes2

late pleistocene temperature depression and vegetation change in ecuadorian amazonia abstract paleoecological pollen phytolith and wood analyses of sediments radiocarbon dated 33 000 to 26 000 yr b p from two sites in ecuadorian amazonia provide data that suggest a cooling of ca 7 5 c below present in equatorial lowlands from 33 000 to 30 000 yr b p a period of warning followed in which novel species assemblages a blend of montane and lowland floral components persisted for at least 4000 years these data of forest community change from sites lying within the postulated glacial rain forest napo refugium provide the strongest paleoecological refutation of the refugial hypothesis yet obtained the large temperature depression at ca 30 000 yr b p allows the possibility that if maximum cooling at the equator was synchronous with the last glacial maximum lgm of the northern hemisphere freezing temperatures would have been experienced in parts of lowland amazonia between 25 000 and 18 000 b p

millennial scale instability in the geomagnetic field prior to the matuyama brunhes reversal changes in the earth s magnetic field have global significance that reach from the outer core extending out to the uppermost atmosphere paleomagnetic records derived from sedimentary and volcanic sequences provide important insights into the geodynamo processes that govern the largest geomagnetic changes polarity reversals but dating uncertainties have hindered progress in this understanding here we report a paleomagnetic record from multiple lava flows on tahiti that bracket the matuyama brunhes m b polarity reversal 771 thousand years ago our high precision 40 ar 39 ar ages constrain several rapid and short lived changes in field orientation up to 33 000 years prior to the m b reversal these changes are similar to ones identified in other less well dated lava flows in maui chile and la palma that occurred during an extended period of reduced field strength recorded in sediments we use a simple stochastic model to show that these rapid polarity changes are highly attenuated in sediment records with low sedimentation rates this prolonged 33 000 year period of reduced field strength and increased geomagnetic instability supports models that show frequent centennial to millennial scale polarity changes in the presence of a strongly weakened dipole field

late quaternary depositional architecture of po and tevere river deltas italy and worldwide comparison with coeval deltaic successions abstract po and tevere rivers form two of the most important deltas of the whole mediterranean area detailed investigations have been carried out in the last decade beneath the present delta plains of these two river systems using borehole data correlation with the aid of radiocarbon dates and other dating methods pollens archaeology a detailed sequence stratigraphic framework has been constructed in both areas especially for the last glacial interglacial cycle regional subsidence combined with short term sea level fluctuations of relatively high amplitude played a fundamental role in creating subtracting accommodation during the long phase of falling sea level which followed the tyrrhenian substage 5e transgressive event a discontinuous record of this phase is present in the subsurface of the po plain whereas poor or no preservation has been detected in the tevere area progradational lowstand wedges accumulated during the last glacial maximum mostly in the central part of the basins far from the present deltas and are lacking in the study areas where a hiatal surface is invariably recorded below the transgressive deposits glacioeustasy exerted a major control on sedimentation in both areas during the latest pleistocene holocene sea level rise infilling of fluvial valleys and rapid landward migration of barrier lagoon systems in the context of wave dominated estuaries characterized the transgressive phase in both po and tevere systems in place drowning and transgressive submergence mechanisms of barrier migration were effective predominantly between 13 5 and 9 ka bp in contrast shoreface retreat was dominant in the late transgressive phase the maximum flooding surface mfs can be traced physically from continental to marine deposits and has similar characteristics in the po and tevere river systems being marked by peat layers or lagoonal deposits at landward locations and by distinctive lithological characteristics and micro and macrofossils assemblages basinwards above the mfs the early highstand systems tract records initially the filling of the lagoons followed by the rapid progradation of wave dominate delta systems and flanking strandplains autocyclic processes such as distributary channel avulsion delta lobe abandonment and local subsidence due to sediment compaction were the fundamental controlling factors on sedimentation during deposition of the hst the stratigraphic architecture of the post glacial po and tevere delta complexes closely resembles the basic facies successions documented from coeval deposits of wave dominated and wave influenced clastic coasts both locally within the mediterranean area and in other parts of the world our study emphasizes however some additional features and major differences with previously published depositional models including i the development of backstepping wave dominated estuaries during transgression ii consistent changes through time in the mechanism of barrier migration iii a later construction of the delta systems with respect to what traditionally considered

evolution of tidal amplitudes in the eastern pacific ocean 1 global sea level gsl rise is well documented however changes in high waters including the tidal contribution are sometimes more relevant than gsl rise analysis of 34 long tidal records from the eastern pacific ocean shows that k1 and m2 amplitudes k1 and m2 are increasing except for m2 in the gulf of panama north of 18 n k1 and m2 are both growing at 2 2 century 1 the mean increase in total tidal amplitude 0 59 mmyr 1 is less than the present gsl rise 1 7 mmyr 1 however mean sea level is nearly constant in the ne pacific so tidal evolution plays a major regional role in changes in high water levels the spatial pattern of tidal evolution suggests the influence of large scale processes and the similarity in spatial patterns for k1 and m2 excludes mechanisms with strong frequency dependence increasing tidal amplitudes may impact ocean mixing nutrient supply primary production fisheries and coastal erosion

interaction of fluctuating river flow with a barotropic tide a demonstration of wavelet tidal analysis methods wavelet transforms provide a valuable new tool for analysis of tidal processes that deviate markedly from an assumption of exact periodicity inherent in traditional harmonic analysis a wavelet basis adapted to nonstationary tidal problems is constructed and employed to analyze the modulation of the external tide in a river by variations in streamflow interaction of a surface tide with river flow is the best available demonstration of the continuous wavelet transform cwt methods developed it is the simplest and perhaps the only nonstationary tidal process for which both sufficient data and dynamical understanding exist to allow detailed comparisons between cwt analyses and analytical predictions of the response of tides to nontidal forcing variations at upriver locations of low frequency elevation river stage zr and three tidal species are deduced from cross sectionally integrated equations for landward propagation in a channel of constant cross section with quadratic friction the log of the amplitude of the diurnal d1 semidiurnal d2 and quarterdiurnal d4 elevations should vary at far upriver locations with the square root of the river flow qr and river stage zr should depend on the square of river flow convergent geometry and species species frictional interactions modify these predictions somewhat cwt analyses show that the predicted amplitude behavior for the tidal species is approximately correct best results are obtained for the dominant dynamically simplest processes zr and d2 in the past further progress in understanding river tides has been limited by a lack of data analysis tools data analysis tools are now clearly better than the available analytical solutions

high resolution stratigraphic correlation of benthic oxygen isotopic records spanning the last 300 000 years abstract in order to compare the response of different oceanographic regions to global climate change very detailed stratigraphic techniques are required the global signal of ice volume changes recorded in the oxygen isotopic composition of foraminifera can provide the tool for developing the necessary high resolution stratigraphy in order to evaluate the resolution of a stratigraphy based on detailed isotopic records two techniques are used to correlate a set of benthic oxygen isotope records from seven piston cores taken in the north and south atlantic the indian and the equatorial and north pacific oceans the first technique was modified from the graphic correlation procedure of shaw 1964 this procedure requires the identification of isotopic events that are correlated from core to core detailed correlations for intervals of the cores between events are provided by a series of straight line segments connecting all common events the second technique developed by martinson et al 1982 uses inverse procedures to define a continuous non linear mapping function that correlates the isotopic records the mapping function maximizes the correlation coefficient between data sets being compared the techniques are independent in that they rely on different criteria for correlating the data series stratigraphic correlations obtained by these procedures are in excellent agreement the mean difference between the correlations is on the order of the sampling intervals of each core and when corrected for sedimentation rates suggests that benthic isotope records from the suite of seven cores can be correlated to a resolution of 2000 to 4000 yrs

calcareous nannofloral response to termination ii at 45 n 25 w northeast atlantic abstract termination ii glacial to interglacial transition from oxygen isotope stage 6 to stage 5 is considered to be one of the most rapid and abrupt climatic changes during the late quaternary our high resolution geochemical and nannofloral study of the interval from 140 to 100 ka in the northeast atlantic core t90 9p 45 17 5 n 25 41 3 w shows that termination ii 135 125 ka occurred in two steps of drastic changes interrupted by a short period of stability and followed by at least 25 ka of relatively stable interglacial conditions traditionally referred to as the eemian age substage 5 5 a primary productivity proxy based on coccolith accumulation rate number cm 2 ka 1 shows higher values during the eemian than during glacial stage 6 and interglacial substage 5 4 with the maximum values 70 10 9 coccoliths cm 2 ka 1 at 123 122 ka the coccolith assemblage was dominated by two morphotypes of gephyrocapsa alternating in dominance under different climatic conditions gephyrocapsa muellerae was more abundant in colder periods whereas small gephyrocapsa dominated in the eemian emiliania huxleyi syracosphaera pulchra and florisphaera profunda increased in the eemian whereas coccolithus pelagicus and helicosphaera carteri decreased small gephyrocapsa together with emiliania huxleyi are associated with periods of higher primary productivity the pelagic sedimentary record of termination ii in core t90 9p includes a 5 cm thick layer enriched in ice rafted material a heinrich layer in contrast to termination i where such a heinrich layer h1 is associated with the first meltwater pulse of the deglaciation the record of core t90 9p suggests that the heinrich event of termination ii h11 occurred during the second stage of deglaciation 129 4 127 1 ka it is characterised by accumulation of ice rafted debris and low coccolithophore diversity the coincident apparent drop in coccolith accumulation rate could be explained either by changes in primary productivity due to reduction in salinity and light or by dilution by ice rafted material five models are applied for the deposition of the heinrich layer with changing thickness 3 cm and duration 1000 500 and 250 yr these scenarios result in a lowered constant or even slightly increased primary productivity during this event

tidal amplitude decreases in response to estuarine shrinkage tokyo bay during the holocene abstract tidal changes in tokyo bay during the last 10 000 years were investigated by combining a numerical model with newly compiled model bathymetries for the present day the early 20th century and every 1000 years from 4000 to 10 000 years ago over this time period sea level has changed by more than 30 m and the coastline has shifted 50 60 km tides during the early 20th century and 4000 9000 years ago were larger than those at present from 9000 to 4000 years ago the bay setting was mesotidal in contrast to the modern microtidal setting the maximum tidal level at the head of the bay was 72 higher 7000 years ago than at present and m2 tidal currents at the bay mouth from 10 000 to 9000 years ago were three times stronger than those at present when tides were compared at a fixed location the greatest tidal enhancement was found to have occurred 9000 years ago the weakening of tides over the last 9000 years can be explained by introducing the concept of estuarine shrinkage together with quarter wavelength resonance theory tidal weakening occurred in two phases during the first phase 9000 7000 years ago it was due to the rise in sea level type 2 shrinkage and during the second phase a decrease in the length of the bay was responsible type 1 shrinkage these findings can be applied to the assessment of both past tidal changes and potential future tidal changes in other elongated estuaries with lengths of several tens of kilometers

on the realism of the rain microphysics representation of a squall line in the wrf model part i evaluation with multi frequency cloud radar doppler spectra observations abstractthis study investigates how multifrequency cloud radar observations can be used to evaluate the representation of rain microphysics in the wrf model using two bulk microphysics schemes a s

last interglacial plant macrofossils and climates from ziegler reservoir snowmass village colorado usa abstract ninety plant macrofossil taxa from the ziegler reservoir fossil site near snowmass village colorado record environmental changes at high elevation 2705 m asl in the rocky mountains during the last interglacial period present day vegetation is aspen forest populus tremuloides intermixed with species of higher picea abies and lower artemisia quercus elevations stratigraphic units 4 13 contain montane forest taxa found near the site today and several species that today generally live at lower elevations within abies concolor lycopus americanus and outside colorado najas flexilis these data suggest near modern climatic conditions with slightly warmer summer and winter temperatures this montane forest period was succeeded by a shorter treeless interval unit 14 representing colder and or drier conditions in units 15 16 conifer trees reoccur but deciduous and herb taxa are lacking suggesting a return to warmer conditions although cooler than during the earlier forest period comparison of these inferred paleoclimatic changes with the site s geochronologic framework indicates that the lower interval of sustained warmth correlates with late mis 6 early 5b 138 94 ka the cold interval with mis 5b 94 87 ka and the uppermost cool assemblages with mis 5a 87 77 ka

recent and active tectonics in the calabrian arc southern italy normal faulting which has developed since the middle pleistocene with an overall ese wnw extension is the dominant mode of deformation which has characterized the calabrian arc up to the present quaternary normal faults extend for a total length of about 180 km along the inner side of the arc the different normal fault segments which during the pleistocene controlled the evolution of the main marine sedimentary basins are varying in length from 10 to 20 km and have fault escarpments showing a very young morphology which define the fronts of the major mountain ranges of the arc the morphological features of the fault escarpments suggest slip rates of 0 8 1 1 mm yr for the last 700 k y and values of 0 6 0 9 mm yr for the last 120 k y indicating a uniform rate of faulting since the middle pleistocene crustal seismicity and the mesoseismic areas of historical large events 6 5 m 7 1 which occurred in the calabrian arc are located within a narrow belt along the hanging walls of the quaternary normal fault segments this suggests that the normal faults which dissect the inner side of the calabrian arc may be seismically active

imprints of high salinity water plumes originating from the red sea during termination ii abstract the investigation of a core collected in the socotran area western indian ocean provides new insights into water mass exchanges between the red sea and the gulf of aden through the strait of bab el mandeb during the penultimate deglaciation the benthic oxygen isotope record documents the occurrence of stillstands and possibly reversals within the general trend of sea level rise plumes of warm and salty waters are recorded at the surface of the arabian sea and as far as the socotran coast for each increase in sea level these plumes disappeared whenever global sea level stopped rising or showed a brief lowering according to their high salinities these plumes can only originate in the red sea the sill of bab el mandeb becoming deeper and wider during the deglaciation allowed greater exchange between both seas and stronger flow out of the red sea at each episode of sea level rise isotopic and faunal evidence suggest a strengthening of coastal upwelling in the arabian sea during these periods this increase in upwelling activity may explain how plumes of highly saline waters were maintained at the surface moreover the high salinity surface plumes may have facilitated upwelling activity through the destabilisation of density stratification in the upper water column the occurrence of at least high salinity salty water outflows during termination ii confirms the step wise non linear structure of the penultimate deglaciation providing a perfect example of the threshold concept in rapid climate changes

dust deposition and climate in the carpathian basin over an independently dated last glacial interglacial cycle dust deposition and climate in the carpathian basin over an independently dated last glacial interglacial cycle

secular trends in ocean tides observations and model results 1 during the last century the response of the oceans to tidal forces has changed significantly this study focuses on an analysis of long term sea level records located in the atlantic and pacific primarily in the northern hemisphere it shows that changes of tidal amplitude and or phase have taken place over large scales the principal solar semidiurnal s2 tide shows the largest trends at some locations the change in the mean tidal range due to tidal trends is significant compared with the trend in mean sea level thus it might be advisable to consider these changes in studies of the impact of rising sea level numerical simulations of the principal lunar semidiurnal tide m2 demonstrate a model sensitivity in the north atlantic to changes in glacial isostatic adjustment and sea level rise which captures 30 40 of the magnitude of the trends in observations however the spatial patterns do not agree well with those inferred from observations suggesting that forward global models are currently useful for qualitative but not quantitative understanding of the observed trends a global free oscillation synthesis indicates that sea level rise due to glacial isostatic adjustment leads to decreasing global resonant periods and increasing damping in the system and a coupled oscillator model shows that changes in sea level on the shelf are much more effective at perturbing shelf and ocean tides than sea level changes in the deep ocean

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