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Thursday, 5 March 2020

A new sea-level curve


This is an interesting new sea-level diagram from Batchelor et al (2019), based upon a great deal of new research.  It's not that different from earlier published curves, and it shows that within the two last glacial episodes (MIS-6 Devensian and MIS-2 Wolstonian) the pattern of global cooling -- and hence of sea-level fall -- was similar, but slower in the case of MIS-6 and faster in the case of MIS-2.  

In both glacial episodes sea-level fell to almost -130 m, and recovered to the interglacial level relatively rapidly after the glacial peak, as a result of catastrophic ice wastage in all of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets.

On another graph the MIS-12 (Anglian) glaciation saw a similar fall, to the same level, with the lowest sea-level experienced around 430,000 years ago -- slightly later than in some other reconstructions.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11601-2

The configuration of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets through the Quaternary
Christine L. Batchelor et al,
Nature Communications, 2019

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