Abstract
The growth of large, bank-barrier coral reefs on the Bahamian islands of Great Inagua and San Salvador during the last interglacial was interrupted by at least one major cycle of sea regression and transgression. The fall of sea level resulted in the development of a wave-cut platform that abraded early Sangamon corals in parts of the Devil's Point reef on Great Inagua, and produced erosional breaks in the reefal sequences elsewhere in the Devil's Point reef and in the Cockburn Town reef on San Salvador. Minor red caliche and plant trace fossils formed on earlier interglacial reefal rocks during the low stand. The erosional surfaces subsequently were bored by sponges and bivalves, encrusted by serpulids, and recolonized by corals of younger interglacial age during the ensuing sea-level rise. These later reefal deposits form the base of a shallowing-upward sequence that developed during the rapid fall of sea level that marked the onset of Wisconsinan glacial conditions. Petrographic studies reveal a diagenetic sequence that supports this sea-level history. Preservation of pristine coralline aragonite, coupled with advances in U/Th age dating, allow these events in the history of the reefs to be placed in a precise chronology. We use these data to show that there was a time window of 1,500 years or less during which the regression/transgression cycle occurred and that rates of sea-level change must have been very rapid. We compare our results with the GRIP ice-core data, and show that the history of the Bahamian coral reefs indicates an episode of climate variability during the last interglacial greater than any reported in what is widely believed to be the more stable climate of the Holocene interglacial.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
BROECKER, W.S., 1994, Is Earth climate poised to jump again?:Geotimes, v. 39, p. 16–18.
CAREW, J.L., 1997, Comment: Rapid sea-level changes at the close of the last interglacial (substage 5e) recorded in Bahamian island geology:Geology, v. 25, p. 572–573.
CAREW, J.L. and MYLROIE, J.E., 1995a, Depositional model and stratigraphy for the Quaternary geology of the Bahama Islands,in Curran, H.A. and White, B., eds., Terrestrial and Shallow Marine Geology of the Bahamas and Bermuda:Geological Society of America Special Paper, v. 300, p. 5–32.
CAREW, J.L. and MYLROIE, J.E., 1995b, Quaternary tectonic stability of the Bahamian Archipelago: Evidence from fossil coral reefs and flank margin caves:Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 14, p. 145–153.
CHEN, J.H., CURRAN, H.A., WHITE, B., and WASSERBURG, G.J., 1991, Precise chronology of the last interglacial period:234U-230Th data from fossil coral reefs in the Bahamas:Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 103, p. 82–97.
CURRAN, H.A. and WHITE, B., 1985, The Cockburn Town fossil reef,in Curran, H.A., ed., Pleistocene and Holocene carbonate environments on San Salvador Island, Bahamas, Geological Society of America, Orlando Annual Meeting Field Trip Guidebook: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, CCFL Bahamian Field Station, p. 95–120.
CURRAN, H.A., WHITE, B., CHEN, J.H., and WASSERBURG, G.J., 1989, Comparative morphologic analysis and geochronology for the development and decline of two Pleistocene coral reefs, San Salvador and Great Inagua islands,in Mylroie, J.E., ed., Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on the Geology of the Bahamas: San Salvador, Bahamian Field Station, p. 107–117.
DOWDESWELL, J.A. and WHITE, J.W.C., 1995, Greenland ice core records and rapid climate change:Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, A, v. 352, p. 359–371.
EISENHAUER, A., ZHU, Z.R., COLLINS, L.B., WYRWOLL, K.H., and EICHSTÄTTER, R. 1996, The last Interglacial sea level change: new evidence from the Abrolhos islands, West Australia:Geologische Rundschau, v. 85, p. 606–614.
FIELD, M.H., HUNTLEY, B., and MÜLLER, H., 1994, Eemian climate fluctuations observed in a European pollen record:Nature, v. 371, p. 779–783.
GREENSTEIN, B.J. and MOFFAT, H.A., 1996, Comparative taphonomy of modern and Pleistocene corals, San Salvador, Bahamas:Palaios, v. 11, p. 57–63.
GRIP MEMBERS, 1993, Climate instability during the last interglacial period recorded in the GRIP ice core:Nature, v. 364, p. 203–207.
HALLEY, R.B., MUHS, D.R., SHINN, E.A., DILL, R.F., and KINDINGER, J.L., 1991, A + 1.5 m reef terrace in the southern Exuma Islands, Bahamas:Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 23, p. 40.
HEARTY, P.J. and KINDLER, P., 1995, Sea-level highstand chronology from stable carbonate platforms (Bermuda and The Bahamas):Journal of Coastal Research, v. 11, p. 675–689.
HOLLIN, J.T., 1980, Climate and sea level in isotope stage 5: An east Antarctic ice surge at about 95,000 B.P?:Nature v. 283, p. 629–633.
JOHNSEN, S.J., CLAUSEN, H.B., DANSGAARD, W., GUNDESTRUP, N.S., HAMMER, C.U., and TAUBER, H., 1995, The Eem stable isotope record along GRIP ice core and its interpretation:Quaternary Research, v. 43, p. 117–124.
MEYERS, W.J., 1974, Carbonate cement stratigraphy of the Lake Valley Formation (Mississippian) Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico:Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, v. 44, p. 837–861.
MUHS, D.R. and SZABO, B.J., 1994, New uranium-series ages of the Waimanalo Limestone, Oahu, Hawaii: Implications for sea level during the last interglacial period:Marine Geology, v. 118, p. 315–326.
MYLROIE, J.E., 1997, Comment: Rapid sea-level changes at the close of the last interglacial (substage 5e) recorded in Bahamian island geology:Geology, v. 25, p. 573–574.
NEUMANN, A.C. and HEARTY, P.J., 1996, Rapid sea-level changes at the close of the last interglacial (substage 5e) recorded in Bahamian island geology:Geology, v. 24, p. 775–778.
PRECHT, W.F., 1993, Stratigraphic evidence from reef studies for a double high sea stand during the last interglacial maximum:American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 77, p. 1473.
SEIDENKRANTZ, M-S, KRISTENSEN, P., and KNUDSEN, K.L., 1995, Marine evidence for climatic instability during the last interglacial in shelf records from northwest Europe:Journal of Quaternary Science, v. 10, p. 77–82.
SEIDENKRANTZ, M-S and KNUDSEN, K.L., 1997, Eemian climatic and hydrographical instability on a marine shelf in northern denmark:Quaternary Research, v. 47, p. 218–234.
SHERMAN, C.E., GLENN, C.R., JONES, A.T., BURNETT, W.C., and SCHWARCZ, H.P., 1993, New evidence for two highstands of the sea during the last interglacial, oxygen isotope substage 5e:Geology, v. 21, p. 1079–1082.
THOUVENY, N., DE BEAULIEU, J.-L., BONIFAY, E., CREER, K.M., GULOT, J., ICOLE, M., JOHNSEN, S., JOUZEL, J., REILLE, M., WILLIAMS, T., and WILLIAMSON, D., 1994, Climate variations in Europe over the past 140 kyr deduced from rock magnetism:Nature, v. 371, p. 503–506.
TZEDAKIS, P.C., BENNETT, K.D., and MAGRI, D., 1994, Climate and the pollen record:Nature, v. 370, p. 513.
WHITE, B., 1989, Field guide to the Sue Point fossil reef, San Salvador Island, Bahamas,in Mylroie, J.E., ed., Fourth Symposium on the Geology of the Bahamas: San Salvador, Bahamian Field Station, p. 353–365.
WHITE, B. and CURRAN, H.A., 1987, Coral reef to eolianite transition in the Pleistocene rocks of Great Inagua Island, Bahamas,in Curran, H.A., ed., Proceedings of the Third Symposium on the Geology of the Bahamas: Ft. Lauderdale, CCFL Bahamian Field Station, p. 165–179.
WHITE, B. and CURRAN, H.A., 1995, Entombment and preservation of Sangamonian coral reefs during glacioeustatic sea-level fall, Great Inagua Island, Bahamas,in Curran, H.A. and White, B., eds., Terrestrial and Shallow Marine Geology of the Bahamas and Bermuda:Geological Society of America Special Paper, v. 300, p. 51–61.
WHITE, B., KURKJY, K.A., and CURRAN, H.A., 1984, A shallowing-upward sequence in a Pleistocene coral reef and associated facies, San Salvador, Bahamas,in Teeter, J.W., ed., Proceedings of the Second Symposium on the Geology of the Bahamas: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, CCFL Bahamian Field Station, p. 53–70.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
White, B., Curran, H.A. & Wilson, M.A. Bahamian coral reefs yield evidence of a brief sea-level lowstand during the last interglacial. Carbonates Evaporites 13, 10–22 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03175430
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03175430