title: Ice-sheet collapse and sea-level rise at the Bølling warming 14,600 years ago.
abstract: Past sea-level records provide invaluable information about the response of ice sheets to climate forcing. Some such records suggest that the last deglaciation was punctuated by a dramatic period of sea-level rise, of about 20 metres, in less than 500 years. Controversy about the amplitude and timing of this meltwater pulse (MWP-1A) has, however, led to uncertainty about the source of the melt water and its temporal and causal relationships with the abrupt climate changes of the deglaciation. Here we show that MWP-1A started no earlier than 14,650 years ago and ended before 14,310 years ago, making it coeval with the Bølling warming. Our results, based on corals drilled offshore from Tahiti during Integrated Ocean Drilling Project Expedition 310, reveal that the increase in sea level at Tahiti was between 12 and 22 metres, with a most probable value between 14 and 18 metres, establishing a significant meltwater contribution from the Southern Hemisphere. This implies that the rate of eustatic sea-level rise exceeded 40 millimetres per year during MWP-1A.
authors.affiliation: CEREGE, UMR Aix-Marseille Université - CNRS - IRD - College de France, Technopole de l'Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 4, France. deschamps@cerege.fr
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Deschamps
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.forename: Edouard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bard
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hamelin
authors.forename: Gilbert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Camoin
authors.forename: Alexander L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Gideon M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.forename: Jun'ichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Okuno
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yokoyama
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa; D057894:Coral Reefs; D005615:Freezing; D057232:Global Warming / Q000266:history*; D049690:History, Ancient; D046448:Ice Cover; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D011114:Polynesia; D012623:Seawater / Q000032:analysis*; D013997:Time Factors; D035501:Uncertainty