B. Pillans et al., A review of the Milankovitch climatic beat: template for Plio-Pleistocene sea-level changes and sequence stratigraphy, SEDIMENT GE, 122(1-4), 1998, pp. 5-21
The Milankovitch theory of climate change predicts that global ice volume,
and hence sea-level changes, were controlled by long-term quasi-periodic va
riations in the earth's orbital parameters (obliquity, precession and eccen
tricity). delta(18)O records from deep-sea cores are a proxy for sea-level
changes and have an orbitally tuned chronology covering the last 5 Ma. The
sea-level signal in delta(18)O data from east equatorial Pacific core V19-3
0 is well calibrated with sea-level data from coral terraces on Huon Penins
ula, New Guinea, over the last 140 ka, and with less certainty back to 340
ka. Over the last 140 ka, the sea-level contribution to benthic glacial-int
erglacial isotopic variation is about 1.2-1.3 parts per thousand or 0.011 p
arts per thousand m(-1), and for core V19-30 the glacial-age temperature co
ntribution from deep ocean cooling of 1.7 degrees C is 0.4 parts per thousa
nd. Independent constraints on Late Pliocene sea-level changes interpreted
from shallow marine continental margin records indicate that the sea-level
delta(18)O calibration may not have been the same over the last 2.6 Ma, and
the temperature correction is unlikely to have been the same in all glacia
l periods and all ocean settings. Nevertheless, the astronomically tuned is
otopic records from deep-sea cores provide an accurate chronology and appro
ximate the magnitudes of sea-level changes over the last 2.6 Ma, against wh
ich the facies architecture of stratigraphic sequences can be analysed and
the concepts of sequence stratigraphy properly evaluated. (C) 1998 Elsevier
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