Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 15 April 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5720, pp. 401 - 404
DOI: 10.1126/science.1104035
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Open-System Coral Ages Reveal Persistent Suborbital Sea-Level Cycles

William G. Thompson*{dagger} and Steven L. Goldstein

Sea level is a sensitive index of global climate that has been linked to Earth's orbital variations, with a minimum periodicity of about 21,000 years. Although there is ample evidence for climate oscillations that are too frequent to be explained by orbital forcing, suborbital-frequency sea-level change has been difficult to resolve, primarily because of problems with uranium/thorium coral dating. Here we use a new approach that corrects coral ages for the frequently observed open-system behavior of uranium-series nuclides, substantially improving the resolution of sea-level reconstruction. This curve reveals persistent sea-level oscillations that are too frequent to be explained exclusively by orbital forcing.

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.

* Present address: Department of Geology and Geophysics, 118 Clark Lab, Mail Stop 23, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wthompson{at}whoi.edu

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)