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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L20603, doi:10.1029/2007GL031318, 2007

Rapid sea level rise and ice sheet response to 8,200-year climate event

T. M. Cronin

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, USA


P. R. Vogt

Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D. C., USA


D. A. Willard

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, USA


R. Thunell

Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA


J. Halka

Maryland Geological Survey, Baltimore, Maryland, USA


M. Berke

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, USA


J. Pohlman

U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA


Abstract

The largest abrupt climatic reversal of the Holocene interglacial, the cooling event 8.6–8.2 thousand years ago (ka), was probably caused by catastrophic release of glacial Lake Agassiz-Ojibway, which slowed Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and cooled global climate. Geophysical surveys and sediment cores from Chesapeake Bay reveal the pattern of sea level rise during this event. Sea level rose ∼14 m between 9.5 to 7.5 ka, a pattern consistent with coral records and the ICE-5G glacio-isostatic adjustment model. There were two distinct periods at ∼8.9–8.8 and ∼8.2–7.6 ka when Chesapeake marshes were drown as sea level rose rapidly at least ∼12 mm yr−1. The latter event occurred after the 8.6–8.2 ka cooling event, coincided with extreme warming and vigorous AMOC centered on 7.9 ka, and may have been due to Antarctic Ice Sheet decay.

Received 24 July 2007; accepted 4 September 2007; published 24 October 2007.

Keywords: sea level rise; Holocene; 8.2 ka event.

Index Terms: 1641 Global Change: Sea level change (1222, 1225, 4556); 1605 Global Change: Abrupt/rapid climate change (4901, 8408); 0473 Biogeosciences: Paleoclimatology and paleoceanography (3344, 4900); 0726 Cryosphere: Ice sheets; 1223 Geodesy and Gravity: Ocean/Earth/atmosphere/hydrosphere/cryosphere interactions (0762, 1218, 3319, 4550).

Subscriber Access to Full Article (Nonsubscribers may purchase for $9.00, Includes print PDF, file size: 554753 bytes)

Citation: Cronin, T. M., P. R. Vogt, D. A. Willard, R. Thunell, J. Halka, M. Berke, and J. Pohlman (2007), Rapid sea level rise and ice sheet response to 8,200-year climate event, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L20603, doi:10.1029/2007GL031318.