promoting access to White Rose research papers Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ This is an author produced version of a paper published in Nature. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/76493/ Paper: Gregoire, LJ, Payne, AJ and Valdes, PJ (2012) Deglacial rapid sea level rises caused by ice-sheet saddle collapses. Nature, 487 (7406). 219 - 222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11257 White Rose Research Online
[email protected] 1 Deglacial rapid sea level rises caused by ice sheet saddle collapses 2 Lauren J. Gregoire, Antony J. Payne and Paul J. Valdes 3 School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK. 4 5 Manuscript accepted in Nature and published in July 2012. 6 Citation: Gregoire, L.J., Payne, A.J., Valdes, P.J., 2012. Deglacial rapid sea level rises caused 7 by ice-sheet saddle collapses. Nature 487, 219–222. doi: 10.1038/nature11257. 8 Publised version available at: 9 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v487/n7406/full/nature11257.html 10 11 Several meltwater pulses occurred during the last deglaciation (21-7 ka), sometimes 12 causing significant climate change1,2. Around 14 ka, Meltwater Pulse 1a (MWP1a), the 13 largest of these events, produced a sea level rise of 14-18 m in 350 years3. This great 14 amount of water came from the retreat of ice sheets, but there is currently no consensus 15 on the source or the cause of this rapid sea level rise4–6. We present an ice sheet 16 modelling simulation during which the separation of the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice 17 sheets in North America produces a meltwater pulse, which correlates with MWP1a.