University of New Mexico Distinguished Professor Yemane Asmerom was elected as an American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Fellow. He joined 53 other individuals from around the world in the 2022 Class of Fellows (add link). Since 1962, the AGU Union.
, by investigating samples that are either older or younger than the Pliocene epoch (5.3 to 2.6 million years ago). Using precisely dated cave deposits from several of the Mallorcan caves and applying numerical and statistical models to estimate the corrections for glacial isostatic adjustment and long‐term uplift, they translated the local sea level estimates into global mean sea level (GMSL).
Their results show that during key time events, such as Pliocene–Pleistocene Transition, some 2.6 million years ago, the GMSL stood at 6.4 meters (some 10 meters lower than the warmer Pliocene), whereas during the beginning and the end of the Mid‐Pleistocene Transition the sea level was at −1.1 meter and 5 meters respectively.