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North Atlantic Climate–Ocean Variations and Sea Level in Long Island Sound, Connecticut, Since 500 cal yr A.D.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Orson van de Plassche
Orson van de Plassche*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Abstract

A record of detrended mean high water (MHW) variations from Hammock River marsh, Connecticut, is extended from ca. 850 to ca. 500 cal yr A.D. and correlated with summer-temperature reconstructions from northern Fennoscandia and northern Eurasia, Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 δ18O, and Greenland Ice Core Project borehole-temperature variations from central Greenland, a Sargasso Sea sea-surface temperature (SST) record, and a proxy record for deep-ocean flow south of Iceland. The records from northern Fennoscandia/Eurasia and central Greenland document century-scale intervals of warming (four) and cooling (three) since ca A.D. 850. The MHW fluctuations lag behind these climate intervals by 0–100 yr, with the two larger MHW rises corresponding to the two larger temperature increases. This positive correlation suggests that surface air temperature (SAT) is a dominant variable controlling sea level in the northwestern North Atlantic since ca. A.D. 850. The SST variations parallel the MHW fluctuations back to ca. 950 cal yr A.D. A positive correlation is found also for (sub)century-scale SAT and MHW variations during the period A.D. 500–850, but this result is less firm. MHW–SST correlation over this time interval is not consistent.

Keywords

salt marshmarsh accretionforaminiferatidal dampingocean-surface topographyocean-current strengthlate Holocene
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 89 - 97
Copyright
University of Washington

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