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Laurentide‐Cordilleran Ice Sheet saddle collapse as a contribution to meltwater pulse 1A

2015; American Geophysical Union; Volume: 42; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/2015gl063960

1944-8007

Natalya Gomez, Lauren Gregoire, J. X. Mitrovica, A. J. Payne,

Cryospheric studies and observations

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.