SIGNATURES OF RAPID SEA LEVEL RISE; FROM DEGLACIAL MELTWATER PULSES TO HYPOTHETICAL FUTURE EVENTS (Invited Presentation)

Episodes of rapid sea level rise were characteristic of the last glacial-interglacial cycle, the most prominent examples being Meltwater Pulses 1A and 1B that occurred during the transition from Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene interglacial. These events were apparently triggered by rapid onsets of enhanced thermohaline overturning circulation after its intensity had been significantly diminished by freshwater outflows that inhibited NADW formation in the Greenland, Iceland, Norwegian (GIN) Seas. It remains somewhat enigmatic as to why the freshwater outflows themselves were not marked by equally significant impacts upon sea level as were the periods of rapid recovery of THC intensity. The gravitationally self consistent theory of global sea level rise provides an accurate means whereby the global signatures of such past episodes of rapid relative sea level rise may be predicted once the geographical sources of associated land ice melting are known. Conversely, observational constraints of the spatial signature of a particular meltwater pulse may provide a useful means of determining its geographical source The global signatures of these past events will be illustrated. Examples of hypothetical future events associated with rapid meltback of either the Greenland or West Antarctic ice sheet will also be described although questions remain concerning their plausibility as expected responses to the modern global warming process..