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The Influence of Water Storage in Marine Sediment on Sea‐Level Change
Author(s) -
Ferrier Ken L.,
Li Qi,
Pico Tamara,
Austermann Jacqueline
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl076592
Subject(s) - interglacial , sea level , seawater , sedimentary rock , sediment , oceanography , geology , climate change , environmental science , global change , water level , climatology , glacial period , geomorphology , geochemistry , geography , cartography
Sea‐level changes are of wide interest because they provide information about Earth's internal structure and the sensitivity of ice sheets to climate change. Here we illustrate the sensitivity of sea level to marine sedimentary water storage by modeling sea‐level responses to a synthetic global sediment redistribution history in which rates and patterns of erosion and deposition are similar to those at present and steady in time from the Last Interglacial to present. Our simulations show that if sediment redistribution were accounted for but sedimentary water storage were neglected, modeled sea‐level changes could be overestimated by ~2 ± 1 m of global mean sea‐level equivalent, a significant fraction of published estimates of 6–9 m of global mean sea‐level change since the Last Interglacial. These results show that sedimentary water storage may significantly contribute to changes in Earth's long‐term seawater budget over >10 5 year timescales and underscore the importance of accounting for it in modeling long‐term sea‐level changes.