MAGNITUDE AND TIMING OF EPISODIC SEA-LEVEL RISE DURING THE LAST DEGLACIATION

A succession of elevated ridge deposits on the south Florida margin wa s mapped using high-resolution seismic and side-scan sonar imaging in water depths ranging from 50 to 124 m, The ridges are interpreted to b e subtidal shoal complexes and paleoshorelines (eolian dune or beach) formed during the last sea-level transgression, Oolitic and skeletal g rainstones and mixed skeletal-peloidal-ooid packstones were recovered using a research submersible, All of the grains are of shallow-water o r intertidal origin, and both marine and nonmarine cements were identi fied. Formation and preservation of these features are attributed to e pisodic and rapid changes in the rate of the deglacial sea-level rise at the onset of the termination 1A delta(18)O excursion, This high-res olution record of sea-level change appears to be related to deglacial processes operating on submillennial time scales and supports increasi ng evidence of rapid episodic fluctuations in ice volume, climate, and ocean-circulation patterns during glacial-interglacial transitions.