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Science 15 April 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5720, p. 321
DOI: 10.1126/science.308.5720.321a
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This Week in Science

Figure 1 Sea level has varied by amounts well in excess of 100 meters during recent 100,000-year-long glacial cycles. However, smaller but still substantial variations of tens of meters occurred on time scales of only tens of thousands of years. Corals are the best absolute indicators of sea level, but they often exchange uranium with seawater after they have died, which makes it difficult to perform the uranium-thorium radiometric dating needed to establish their ages and the timing of associated sea-level changes. Thompson and Goldstein (p. 401; see the Perspective by Henderson) have circumvented this problem by developing an analytical method that allows them to correct for the open system behavior of U-series nuclides in corals. They generated a sea-level curve for the last glacial period with sufficient temporal resolution to reveal variations that were not previously clear.

CREDIT: HENDERSON




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