Sea Level and Ice Sheet Stability During Past (and Future) Warming

Past warm periods are testing grounds for major ice sheets’ response to global warming. Stratigraphic evidence from the Bahamas from the most recent warm period, the Last Interglacial at ~125 ka, constrains glacial isostatic adjustment and shows sea level very likely did not exceed ~5m, below current IPCC estimates. This finding, taken with global observations, helps constrain the melt history of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. To constrain sea level during the earlier mid-Pliocene (~3 Ma) and early Pliocene (~5 Ma) warm periods we must also understand mantle convection. The combined results start to paint a coherent picture of ice sheet sensitivity, ice sheet processes and future sea level rise.

Speaker: Jacky Austermann, Columbia University

Room 350/372