Credit: University of South Florida
TAMPA, Fla. (January 22, 2021)- The pressing concern posed by rising sea levels has created a critical need for scientists to precisely predict how quickly the oceans will rise in coming centuries. To gain insight into future ice sheet stability and sea-level rise, new research from an international team led by University of South Florida geoscientists is drawing on evidence from past interglacial periods when Earth's climate was warmer than today.
Using deposits in the caves of the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, known as phreatic overgrowths on speleothems, to reconstruct past sea level stands, the team was able to determine that the vertical extent of these unique deposits corresponds with the amplitude of the fluctuating water table, said author USF geosciences Professor Bogdan Onac. That determination now is providing scientists with a way to precisely measure past sea levels.