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Seminar Details

MIS 3 global sea level: A new threshold level set by the Bosporus and Dardanelles sills

Date

01/06/2017

Lecturers

Dr. Anastasia Yanchilina - Weizmann Institute of Science

Abstract

Reconstructions of sea level during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) show a global sea level fluctuating between ~5 to 15 m and vary from as low as -40 m to as high -80 m between each other, depending on the methodology employed. The reconstruction of accurate global sea level is important for the understanding the balance of ice sheet growth and decay with the connection to the climate system as MIS 3 is notorious for the Heinrich and Dansgaard/ Oeschger millenial events. Prior sea level reconstructions come predominantly from elevated coral terraces and oxygen isotopes of foraminifera. The former suffers from unconfirmed assumptions of constant uplift rates and the latter from uncertainties due to ocean temperature changes. I will be presenting a novel approach to show that the global sea level during MIS 3 did not exceed ~70 m using the sill level of the Bosporus and Dardanelles sills and the exchange of water into and out of Black and Marmara Seas during this intriguing period. This conclusion questions the stability of uplift rates for coral terraces in tectonically active areas and also, suggests that the global temperature of the ocean may have fluctuated more than we now believe.

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