A Global Database of Marine Isotope Stage 5a and 5c Marine Terraces and Paleoshoreline Indicators

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.5194/essd-2021-14 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Schmitty B. Thompson ◽

Jessica R. Creveling

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Sea Level ◽

Atlantic Coast ◽

Marine Isotope Stage ◽

Tectonic Deformation ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

Global Database ◽

Isostatic Adjustment ◽

Marine Terraces ◽

Open Access Database

Abstract. In this review we compile and detail the elevation, indicative meaning, and chronology of Marine Isotope Stage 5a and 5c sea level indicators for 39 sites within three geographic regions: the Pacific coast of North America, the Atlantic coast of North America and the Caribbean, and the remaining globe. These relative sea level indicators, comprised of geomorphic indicators such as marine and coral reef terraces, eolianites, and sedimentary marine and terrestrial limiting facies, facilitate future investigation into Marine Isotope Stage 5a and 5c interstadial paleo-sea level reconstruction, glacial isostatic adjustment, and Quaternary tectonic deformation. The open access database, presented in the format of the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) database, can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4426206 (Thompson and Creveling, 2021).

A global database of marine isotope substage 5a and 5c marine terraces and paleoshoreline indicators

Earth System Science Data ◽

10.5194/essd-13-3467-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 3467-3490

Author(s):

Schmitty B. Thompson ◽

Jessica R. Creveling

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

North American ◽

Atlantic Coast ◽

Tectonic Deformation ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

Global Database ◽

Isostatic Adjustment ◽

The North ◽

Marine Terraces ◽

Open Access Database

Abstract. In this review we compile and document the elevation, indicative meaning, and chronology of marine isotope substage 5a and 5c sea level indicators for 39 sites within three geographic regions: the North American Pacific coast, the North American Atlantic coast and the Caribbean, and the remaining globe. These relative sea level indicators, comprised of geomorphic indicators such as marine and coral reef terraces, eolianites, and sedimentary marine- and terrestrial-limiting facies, facilitate future investigation into marine isotope substage 5a and 5c interstadial paleo-sea level reconstruction, glacial isostatic adjustment, and Quaternary tectonic deformation. The open-access database, presented in the format of the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) database, can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5021306 (Thompson and Creveling, 2021).

A Standardized Database of Marine Isotope Stage 5a and 5c Paleo-Shoreline Indicators

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16399 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Schmitty B. Thompson ◽

Jessica R. Creveling

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Sea Level ◽

Atlantic Coast ◽

Ice Sheets ◽

Climate Projections ◽

Glacial Isostatic Adjustment ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

Isostatic Adjustment ◽

The Caribbean

Reconstructions of global mean sea level (GMSL) through interstadials such as Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5a and 5c provide important constraints on the rates of growth and collapse of major ice sheets during warm periods analogous to future climate projections. These reconstructions rely upon precisely dated geomorphic and sedimentological indicators for past sea level whose present elevations are complicated by tectonics and glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). Compilations of MIS 5a and 5c paleo-sea level indicators that covering a wide geographic range can be used to minimize misfit with glacial isostatic adjustment models and thereby quantify and refine the convolved contribution of GMSL to the present elevation of paleo-shoreline indicators. Here we present a global compilation of previously published Marine Isotope Stages 5a and 5c local sea level indicators from 39 sites covering three main regions: the Pacific coast of North America, the Atlantic coast of North America and the Caribbean, and far field. We describe the standardized entry of these data into the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) database. Each entry within the MIS 5a and 5c WALIS database reproduces from the primary literature the indicator elevation, indicative meaning, and geochronology, along with a comprehensive overview of the literature for each site. While MIS 5a and 5c indicators sites are geographically widespread, these data are also patchy and preferentially represent the North American continent and the Caribbean and, hence, regions intermediate and far afield of the contemporaneous ice sheets. While this dataset will support future refinements to MIS 5a and 5c GMSL reconstructions arising from GIA modeling, it also motivates further data collection.

THE MARINE TERRACES OF SANTA CRUZ ISLAND, CALIFORNIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR GLACIAL ISOSTATIC ADJUSTMENT MODELS OF LAST-INTERGLACIAL SEA-LEVEL HISTORY

10.1130/abs/2020am-359683 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Muhs ◽

◽

R.R. Schumann ◽

Lindsey T. Groves ◽

Kathleen R. Simmons ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Glacial Isostatic Adjustment ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

Santa Cruz Island ◽

Santa Cruz ◽

Isostatic Adjustment ◽

Marine Terraces

The marine terraces of Santa Cruz Island, California: Implications for glacial isostatic adjustment models of last-interglacial sea-level history

Geomorphology ◽

10.1016/j.geomorph.2021.107826 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 107826

Author(s):

Daniel R. Muhs ◽

R. Randall Schumann ◽

Lindsey T. Groves ◽

Kathleen R. Simmons ◽

Christopher R. Florian

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Glacial Isostatic Adjustment ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

Santa Cruz Island ◽

Santa Cruz ◽

Isostatic Adjustment ◽

Marine Terraces

Last interglacial sea-level proxies in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean

Earth System Science Data ◽

10.5194/essd-13-1633-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 1633-1651

Author(s):

Patrick Boyden ◽

Jennifer Weil-Accardo ◽

Pierre Deschamps ◽

Davide Oppo ◽

Alessio Rovere

Keyword(s):

Indian Ocean ◽

East Africa ◽

Sea Level ◽

Western Indian Ocean ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

The North ◽

Marine Terraces ◽

Open Access Database ◽

Eolian Deposits ◽

Mis 5

Abstract. In this paper, we describe a sea-level database compiled using published last interglacial, Marine Isotopic Stage 5 (MIS 5), geological sea-level proxies within East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean (EAWIO). Encompassing vast tropical coastlines and coralline islands, this region has many occurrences of well-preserved last interglacial stratigraphies. Most notably, islands almost entirely composed of Pleistocene reefs (such as Aldabra, the Seychelles) have provided reliable paleo relative sea-level indicators and well-preserved samples for U-series chronology. Other sea-level proxies include uplifted marine terraces in the north of Somalia and Pleistocene eolian deposits notched by the MIS 5 sea level in Mozambique to tidal notches in luminescence-limited eolian deposits in Mozambique. Our database has been compiled using the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) interface and contains 58 sea-level indicators and 2 terrestrial-limiting data points. The open-access database is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4302244 (Version 1.03; Boyden et al., 2020).

The Last Interglacial Sea Level database for the Western Mediterranean

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13192 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ciro Cerrone ◽

Matteo Vacchi ◽

Alessandro Fontana ◽

Alessio Rovere

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Western Mediterranean ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

Amino Acid Racemization ◽

Marine Deposits ◽

Marine Terraces ◽

Wide Range ◽

Scientific Papers ◽

Open Access Database ◽

Mis 5E

An open access database containing raw data of Last Interglacial sea-level proxies for the Western Mediterranean has been compiled by reviewing hundreds of original published papers in accordance with the WALIS template (https://warmcoasts.eu/world-atlas.html). WALIS allows collecting both the relative sea-level (RSL) indicators and ages data in a standardized format. Ca. 360 sea-level index points for the coasts of Spain, France, Italy, Albania, Algeria and Morocco have been included in the database. The sea-level index points of the database are related to ca. 350 samples dated by a wide range of dating techniques, e.g., U-series, Amino Acid Racemization, Luminescence (Tl/OSL) and Electron Spin Resonance methods or chronostratigraphically correlated to marine deposits bearing P. latus and &#8220;Senegalese fauna&#8221;. In fact, for some areas of the Mediterranean Sea, the &#8220;Senegalese fauna&#8221; is indicative of the MIS 5e.Among the eleven types of sea-level indicators of our database, the majority of them are represented by marine terraces, beach deposits (or beachrocks), and tidal notches. Whenever the relationship between the RSL indicators and the former sea-level could not be quantified, such indicators have been considered as marine or terrestrial limiting points. An indirect age of the tidal notches has been provided by correlation with the nearby dated deposit. In the case no precise elevation information has been reported by the Authors, the elevation error of RSL datapoints has been reassessed in the 20 % of the elevation value, more a 5% if the sea-level datum was lacking in the scientific papers we have reviewed.&#160; Overall, the quality of each RSL datapoints and the associated age have been ranked in a 0 to 5 scale score according to Rovere et al., (2020).&#160;ReferencesRovere, A., Ryan, D., Murray-Wallace, C., Simms, A., Vacchi, M., Dutton, A., Gowan, E., 2020. Descriptions of database fields for the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) (Version 1,0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3961544

Reconciling geodetic and geologic estimates of coastal vertical land motion around the British Isles

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10710 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Makan A. Karegar ◽

Simon E. Engelhart ◽

Jürgen Kusche ◽

Glenn A. Milne ◽

Sarah L. Bradley

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Sea Level ◽

Land Surface ◽

Atlantic Coast ◽

Glacial Isostatic Adjustment ◽

British Isles ◽

Isostatic Adjustment ◽

Vertical Land Motion ◽

Precise Analysis ◽

Holocene Sea Level

Karegar et al. (2016, GRL) showed that independent estimates of vertical land motion from geodetic and geologic techniques are critical for understanding coastal surface motion caused by geological versus human-induced processes along the Atlantic coast of North America. Motivated by these results, we extend our analysis to the British Isles where good quality and spatially dense constraints are available from a continuous GNSS network and a state-of-the-art Holocene sea-level database. Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) along the Atlantic coast of North America causes the land surface to sink (up to -1.5 mm/yr), exacerbating tidal-induced flooding effects of sea-level rise. The British Isles are also subjected to proglacial forebulge collapse associated with the GIA response to the ancient Fennoscandian and British-Irish Ice Sheets. Here, we present an up-to-date and precise analysis based on continuous GNSS (combined GPS and GlONASS observations) and geologic records of late Holocene sea-level change to examine residuals between rates on these different timescales to determine if there is a significant residual and, if so, the processes responsible for the rate change.

Compilation of Last Interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 5e) sea level indicators in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and the east coast of Florida, USA

10.5194/essd-2021-391 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Andrea Dutton ◽

Alexandra Villa ◽

Peter M. Chutcharavan

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Atlantic Coast ◽

Marine Isotope Stage ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

The Bahamas ◽

The Past ◽

Subaerial Exposure ◽

Fossil Corals ◽

Community Effort ◽

Mis 5E

Abstract. This paper provides a summary of published sea level archives representing the past position of sea level during the Last Interglacial sea level highstand in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and the eastern (Atlantic) coast of Florida, USA. These data were assembled as part of a community effort to build the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) database. Shallow marine deposits from this sea level highstand are widespread across the region and are dominated by carbonate sedimentary features. In addition to depositional (constructional) sedimentary indicators of past sea level position, there is also evidence of erosion, dissolution, and/or subaerial exposure in places that can place an upper limit on the position of sea level. The sea level indicators that have been observed within this region and attributed to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e include corals, oolites, and other coastal sedimentary features. Here we compile a total of 50 relative sea level indicators including 36 in the Bahamas, three in West Caicos, and a remaining 10 for the eastern seaboard of Florida. We have also compiled U-Th age data for 24 fossil corals and 56 oolite samples. While some of these archives have been dated using U-Th disequilibrium methods, amino acid racemization, or optically stimulated luminescence, other features have more uncertain ages that have been deduced in the context of regional mapping and stratigraphy. Sedimentary archives in this region that constrain the elevation of the past position of sea level are associated with uncertainties that range from a couple decimeters to several meters. Across the Bahamas and on West Caicos, one of the observations that emerges from this compilation is that estimation of sea level position in this region during Marine Isotope Stage 5e is complicated by widespread stratigraphic evidence for at least one sea level oscillation. This evidence is defined by submarine features separated by erosion and subaerial exposure, meaning that there were likely multiple distinct peaks in sea level rather than just one. To this end, the timing of these individual sea level indicators becomes important when compiling and comparing data across the region given that different archives may have formed during different sub-orbital peaks in sea level.

WALIS - Towards a global database of Last Interglacial sea-level proxies.

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9827 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alessio Rovere ◽

Deirdre Ryan ◽

Matteo Vacchi ◽

Alexander Simms ◽

Andrea Dutton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Research Council ◽

Geological Data ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

Global Database ◽

The World ◽

First Results ◽

Data Points ◽

The Subject

The standardization of geological data, and their compilation into geodatabases, is essential to allow more coherent regional and global analyses. In sea-level studies, the compilation of databases containing details on geological paleo sea-level proxies has been the subject of decades of work. This was largely spearheaded by the community working on Holocene timescales. While several attempts were also made to compile data from older interglacials, a truly comprehensive approach was missing. Here, we present the ongoing efforts directed to create the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS), a project spearheaded by the PALSEA (PAGES/INQUA) community and funded by the European Research Council (ERC StG 802414). The project aims at building a sea-level database centered on the Last Interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 5e, 125 ka), a period of time considered as an "imperfect analog" for a future warmer climate. The database is composed of 17 tables embedded into a mySQL framework with a total of more than 500 single fields to describe several properties related to paleo sea-level proxies, dated samples and metadata. In this presentation, we will show the first results of the global compilation, which includes nearly 2000 data points and will discuss its relevance in answering some of the most pressing questions related to sea-level changes in past warmer worlds.&#160;

MIS 5e sea-level history along the Pacific Coast of North America

10.5194/essd-2021-345 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel R. Muhs

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Sea Level ◽

Baja California ◽

Pacific Coast ◽

Level Indicator ◽

Sequence Of Events ◽

Marine Terraces ◽

The Pacific ◽

Mis 5E ◽

Good Agreement

Abstract. The primary last interglacial, marine isotope substage (MIS) 5e records on the Pacific Coast of North America, from Washington (USA) to Baja California Sur (Mexico), are found in the deposits of erosional marine terraces. Warmer coasts along the southern Golfo de California host both erosional marine terraces and constructional coral reef terraces. Because the northern part of the region is tectonically active, MIS 5e terrace elevations vary considerably, from a few meters above sea level to as much as 70 m above sea level. The primary paleo-sea level indicator is the shoreline angle, the junction of the wave-cut platform with the former sea cliff, which forms very close to mean sea level. Most areas on the Pacific Coast of North America have experienced uplift since MIS 5e time, but the rate of uplift varies substantially as a function of tectonic setting. Chronology in most places is based on uranium-series ages of the solitary coral Balanophyllia elegans (erosional terraces) or the colonial corals Porites and Pocillopora (constructional reefs). In areas lacking corals, correlation to MIS 5e can sometimes be accomplished using amino acid ratios of fossil mollusks, compared to similar ratios in mollusks that also host dated corals. U-series analyses of corals that have experienced largely closed-system histories range from ~124 to ~118 ka, in good agreement with ages from MIS 5e reef terraces elsewhere in the world. There is no geomorphic, stratigraphic, or geochronology evidence for more than one high-sea stand during MIS 5e on the Pacific Coast of North America. However, in areas of low uplift rate, the outer parts of MIS 5e terraces apparently were re-occupied by the high-sea stand at ~100 ka (MIS 5c), evident from mixes of coral ages and mixes of molluscan faunas with differing thermal aspects. This sequence of events took place because glacial isostatic adjustment processes acting on North America resulted in regional high-sea stands at ~100 ka and ~80 ka that were higher than is the case in far-field regions, distant from large continental ice sheets. During MIS 5e time, sea surface temperatures (SST) off the Pacific Coast of North America were higher than is the case at present, evident from extralimital southern species of mollusks found in dated deposits. Apparently no wholesale shifts in faunal provinces took place, but in MIS 5e time, some species of bivalves and gastropods lived hundreds of kilometers north of their present northern limits, in good agreement with SST estimates derived from foraminiferal records and alkenone-based reconstructions in deep-sea cores. Because many areas of the Pacific Coast of North America have been active tectonically for much or all of the Quaternary, many earlier interglacial periods are recorded as uplifted, higher elevation terraces. In addition, from southern Oregon to northern Baja California, there are U-series-dated corals from marine terraces that formed ~80 ka, during MIS 5a. In contrast to MIS 5e, these terrace deposits host molluscan faunas that contain extralimital northern species, indicating cooler SST at the end of MIS 5. Here I present a standardized database of MIS 5e sea-level indicators along the Pacific Coast of North America and the corresponding dated samples. The database is available in Muhs (2021) [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5557355].