A reconciled solution of Meltwater Pulse 1A sources using sea-level fingerprinting.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33795667.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-21990-y and PMC identifier 8016857.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The most rapid global sea-level rise event of the last deglaciation, Meltwater Pulse 1A (MWP-1A), occurred ∼14,650 years ago. Considerable uncertainty regarding the sources of meltwater limits understanding of the relationship between MWP-1A and the concurrent fast-changing climate. Here we present a data-driven inversion approach, using a glacio-isostatic adjustment model to invert for the sources of MWP-1A via sea-level constraints from six geographically distributed sites. The results suggest contributions from Antarctica, 1.3 m (0-5.9 m; 95% probability), Scandinavia, 4.6 m (3.2-6.4 m) and North America, 12.0 m (5.6-15.4 m), giving a global mean sea-level rise of 17.9 m (15.7-20.2 m) in 500 years. Only a North American dominant scenario successfully predicts the observed sea-level change across our six sites and an Antarctic dominant scenario is firmly refuted by Scottish isolation basin records. Our sea-level based results therefore reconcile with field-based ice-sheet reconstructions.