Laurentide-Cordilleran Ice Sheet saddle collapse as a contribution to meltwater pulse 1A
Abstract
The source or sources of meltwater pulse 1A (MWP-1A) at ~14.5 ka, recorded at widely distributed sites as a sea level rise of ~10-20 m in less than 500 years, is uncertain. A recent ice modeling study of North America and Greenland has suggested that the collapse of an ice saddle between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets, with a eustatic sea level equivalent (ESLE) of ~10 m, may have been the dominant contributor to MWP-1A. To test this suggestion, we predict gravitationally self-consistent sea level changes from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present day associated with the ice model. We find that a combination of the saddle collapse scenario and melting outside North America and Greenland with an ESLE of ~3 m yields sea level changes across MWP-1A that are consistent with far-field sea level records at Barbados, Tahiti, and Sunda Shelf.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- May 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1002/2015GL063960
- Bibcode:
- 2015GeoRL..42.3954G
- Keywords:
-
- abrupt climate change;
- ice sheets;
- sea level;
- cryosphere;
- meltwater pulse 1A;
- paleoclimate