title: Milankovitch hypothesis supported by precise dating of coral reefs and deep-sea sediments.
abstract: Barbados provides a possibly unique opportunity for reconstruction of the times and elevations of late-Pleistocene high stands of the sea. The island appears to be rising from the sea at a uniform rate that is fast enough to separate in elevation coral-reef tracts formed at successive high stands of the sea. Unaltered coral found in the lower terraces enables high-precision Th(230): U(234) and Pa(231): U(235) dating. Three distinct high stands of the sea are found about 122,000, 103,000, and 82,000 years ago. New Pa(231) and Th(230) dates from a deep-sea core also indicate that Ericson's W-X cold-to-warm climatic change occurred close to 126,000 years ago. These data show a parallelism over the last 150,000 years between changes in Earth's climate and changes in the summer insolation predicted from cycles in the tilt and precession of Earth's axis.
authors.forename: W S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Broecker
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Thurber
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goddard
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Ku
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Mesolella