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Probabilistic assessment of sea level during the last interglacial stage

Nature volume 462, pages 863–867 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

With polar temperatures ∼3–5 °C warmer than today, the last interglacial stage (∼125 kyr ago) serves as a partial analogue for 1–2 °C global warming scenarios. Geological records from several sites indicate that local sea levels during the last interglacial were higher than today, but because local sea levels differ from global sea level, accurately reconstructing past global sea level requires an integrated analysis of globally distributed data sets. Here we present an extensive compilation of local sea level indicators and a statistical approach for estimating global sea level, local sea levels, ice sheet volumes and their associated uncertainties. We find a 95% probability that global sea level peaked at least 6.6 m higher than today during the last interglacial; it is likely (67% probability) to have exceeded 8.0 m but is unlikely (33% probability) to have exceeded 9.4 m. When global sea level was close to its current level (≥-10 m), the millennial average rate of global sea level rise is very likely to have exceeded 5.6 m kyr-1 but is unlikely to have exceeded 9.2 m kyr-1. Our analysis extends previous last interglacial sea level studies by integrating literature observations within a probabilistic framework that accounts for the physics of sea level change. The results highlight the long-term vulnerability of ice sheets to even relatively low levels of sustained global warming.

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Figure 1: Sites with at least one sea level observation in our database.
Figure 2: Localities at which LSL data exist in our database, for time slices through the LIG.
Figure 3: Schematic illustration of the process used in our statistical analysis.
Figure 4: Probability density plots of GSL and ice volume during the LIG.
Figure 5: Exceedance values calculated from the posterior probability distribution.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. R. Stroud, L. D. Brown and B. McShane for statistical guidance, and M. Bender, B. Horton, D. Nychka and D. Peltier for comments. We also thank G. Spada for providing his SELEN sea level code, which we used for preliminary calculations incorporated in a previous version of the statistical model. Computing resources were substantially provided by the TIGRESS high performance computer centre at Princeton University, which is jointly supported by the Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering and the Princeton University Office of Information Technology. R.E.K. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship in the programme on Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University.

Author Contributions R.E.K. compiled the database, developed the statistical analysis method, and co-wrote the paper. F.J.S. contributed to the development of the statistical analysis method and co-wrote the paper. J.X.M. developed the physical sea level model and co-wrote the paper. A.C.M. contributed to the compilation of the database and co-wrote the paper. M.O. supervised the project and co-wrote the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences,,

    Robert E. Kopp, Frederik J. Simons, Adam C. Maloof & Michael Oppenheimer

  2. Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA ,

    Robert E. Kopp & Michael Oppenheimer

  3. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA,

    Jerry X. Mitrovica

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  1. Robert E. Kopp
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Correspondence to Robert E. Kopp.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Methods, a Supplementary Discussion, Supplementary References, Supplementary Tables 1-2 and Supplementary Figures 1-10 with Legends. Duplicated text that appeared on page 5 was deleted from this file on 04 August 2010. (PDF 791 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

This table describes the Last Interglacial sea level data points used in the analysis. Descriptions of the columns are provided in the worksheet entitled "Legend", while the data themselves are in the worksheet entitled "Database." (XLS 154 kb)

Supplementary Data

This zipped file contains 3 folders of Supplementary Data for Pre-processing, Processing and Post-processing. (ZIP 87 kb)

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Kopp, R., Simons, F., Mitrovica, J. et al. Probabilistic assessment of sea level during the last interglacial stage. Nature 462, 863–867 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08686

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