Abstract:
The last glacial cycle was characterized by substantial millennial scale
climate fluctuations, but the extent of any associated changes in global sea
level (or, equivalently, ice volume) remains elusive. Highstands of sea level
can be reconstructed from dated fossil coral reef terraces, and these data are
complemented by a compilation of global sea-level estimates based on deep-sea
oxygen isotope
... ratios at millennial-scale resolution or higher. Records based
on oxygen isotopes, however, contain uncertainties in the range of +/-30 m, or
+/- 1°C in deep sea temperature. Here we analyse oxygen isotope records from
Red Sea sediment cores to reconstruct the history of water residence times in
the Red Sea. We then use a hydraulic model of the water exchange between the
Red Sea and the world ocean to derive the sill depth - and hence global sea
level - over the past 470,000 years (470 kyr). Our reconstruction is accurate
to within +/- 12 m, and gives a centennial-scale resolution from 70 to 25 kyr
before present. We find that sea-level changes of up to 35 m, at rates of up to
2 cm/yr, occurred, coincident with abrupt changes in climate. 
