Substantial contribution to sea-level rise during the last interglacial from the Greenland ice sheet

被引:183
作者
Cuffey, KM [1 ]
Marshall, SJ
机构
[1] Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Geog, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
[2] Univ British Columbia, Dept Earth & Ocean Sci, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
关键词
D O I
10.1038/35007053
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
During the last interglacial period (the Eemian), global sea level was at least three metres, and probably more than five metres, higher than at present(1,2). Complete melting of either the West Antarctic ice sheet or the Greenland ice sheet would today raise sea levels by 6-7 metres. But the high sea levels during the last interglacial period have been proposed to result mainly from disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet(3), with model studies attributing only 1-2 m of sea-level rise to meltwater from Greenland(4,5). This result was considered consistent with ice core evidence(4), although earlier work had suggested a much reduced Greenland ice sheet during the last interglacial period(6). Here we reconsider the Eemian evolution of the Greenland ice sheet by combining numerical modelling with insights obtained from recent central Greenland ice-core analyses. Our results suggest that the Greenland ice sheet was considerably smaller and steeper during the Eemian, and plausibly contributed 4-5.5 m to the sealevel highstand during that period. We conclude that the high sea level during the last interglacial period most probably included a large contribution from Greenland meltwater and therefore should not be interpreted as evidence for a significant reduction of the West Antarctic ice sheet.
引用
收藏
页码:591 / 594
页数:4
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