Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T05:04:17.504Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evidence for the Timing and Duration of the Last Interglacial Period from High-Precision Uranium-Series Ages of Corals on Tectonically Stable Coastlines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Daniel R. Muhs
Daniel R. Muhs*
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 980, Box 25046, Federal Center, Denver, Colorado, 80225
*
1E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The last interglacial period has a timing and duration that can be estimated from U-series dating of emergent, coral-bearing deposits on tectonically stable coastlines. High-precision dating from Bermuda, the Bahamas, Hawaii, and Australia suggests that the last interglacial period had a sea level at least as high as present from ∼128,000 to 116,000 yr B.P. Sea level reached a near-present level more quickly after the close of the penultimate glacial period than at the close of the last glacial period and the duration of high sea level is longer than that implied by the deep-sea record.

Keywords

last interglacialsea levelU-series datingcorals
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , July 2002 , pp. 36 - 40
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berger, A., and Loutre, M.F. Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years. Quaternary Science Reviews 10, (1991). 297 317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, J.H., Edwards, R.L., and Wasserburg, G.J. 238U, 234U, and 232Th in seawater. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 80, (1986). 241 251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, J.H., Curran, H.A., White, B., and Wasserburg, G.J. Precise chronology of the last interglacial period: 234U-230Th data from fossil coral reefs in the Bahamas. Geological Society of America Bulletin 103, (1991). 82 97.Google Scholar
Edwards, R.L., Cheng, H., Murrell, M.T., and Goldstein, S.J. Protactinium-231 dating of carbonates by thermal ionization mass spectrometry: implications for Quaternary Climate Change. Science 276, (1997). 782 786.Google Scholar
Fruijtier, C., Elliott, T., and Schlager, W. Mass-spectrometric 234U-230Th ages from the Key Largo Formation, Florida Keys, United States: Constraints on diagenetic age disturbance. Geological Society of America Bulletin 112, (2000). 267 277.Google Scholar
Gallup, C.D., Edwards, R.L., and Johnson, R.G. The timing of high sea levels over the past 200,000 years. Science 263, (1994). 796 800.Google Scholar
Kennett, J.P. Latest Quaternary benthic oxygen and carbon isotope stratigraphy: Hole 893A, Santa Barbara Basin, California. Kennett, J.P., Baldauf, J.G., and Lyles, M. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results. (1995). 3 18.Google Scholar
Kukla, G. The last interglacial. Science 287, (2000). 987 988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambeck, K., and Chappell, J. Sea level change through the last glacial cycle. Science 292, (2001). 679 686.Google Scholar
Martin, L., Suguio, K., and Flexor, J.-M. Hauts niveaux marins Pleistocenes du littoral Bresilien. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 68, (1988). 231 239.Google Scholar
Martinson, D.G., Pisias, N.G., Hays, J.D., Imbrie, J., Moore, T.C. Jr., and Shackleton, N.J. Age dating and the orbital theory of the ice ages: Development of a high-resolution 0 to 300,000-year chronostratigraphy. Quaternary Research 27, (1987). 1 29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mix, A.C. The marine oxygen isotope record; constraints on timing and extent of ice-growth events (120-65 ka). Geological Society of America Special Paper 270, (1992). 19 30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muhs, D.R., and Szabo, B.J. New uranium-series ages of the Waimanalo Limestone, Oahu, Hawaii: Implications for sea level during the last interglacial period. Marine Geology 118, (1994). 315 326.Google Scholar
Muhs, D.R., Simmons, K.R., and Steinke, B. Timing and warmth of the last interglacial period: New U-series evidence from Hawaii and Bermuda and a new fossil compilation for North America. Quaternary Science Reviews (2002). CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stirling, C.H., Esat, T.M., McCulloch, M.T., and Lambeck, K. High-precision U-series dating of corals from Western Australia and implications for the timing and duration of the last interglacial. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 135, (1995). 115 130.Google Scholar
Stirling, C.H., Esat, T.M., Lambeck, K., and McCulloch, M.T. Timing and duration of the last interglacial; evidence for a restricted interval of widespread coral reef growth. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 160, (1998). 745 762.Google Scholar
Stirling, C.H., Esat, T.M., Lambeck, K., McCulloch, M.T., Blake, S.G., Lee, D.C., and Halliday, A.N. Orbital forcing of the marine isotope stage 9 interglacial. Science 291, (2001). 290 293.Google Scholar
Szabo, B.J., Ward, W.C., Weidie, A.E., and Brady, M.J. Age and magnitude of the late Pleistocene sea-level rise on the eastern Yucatan Peninsula. Geology 6, (1978). 713 715.Google Scholar
Szabo, B.J., Ludwig, K.R., Muhs, D.R., and Simmons, K.R. Thorium-230 ages of corals and duration of the last interglacial sea-level high stand on Oahu, Hawaii. Science 266, (1994). 93 96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhu, Z.R., Wyrwoll, K.H., Collins, L.B., Chen, J.H., Wasserburg, G.J., and Eisenhauer, A. High-precision U-series dating of Last Interglacial events by mass spectrometry; Houtman Abrolhos Islands, Western Australia. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 118, (1993). 281 293.Google Scholar