Biomaterial Database

Ocean science. Coral clues to rapid sea-level change. 2005

Gideon M Henderson

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PR, United Kingdom. gideon.henderson@earth.ox.ac.uk

Earth's climate can change substantially on time scales of 1000 years or so, but given the time it takes for an ice sheet to grow or melt, it has been unclear whether continental ice sheets-and hence global sea levels-mirror these rapid changes. In his Perspective, Henderson discusses the report by Thompson and Goldstein, who have used a new correction method to date coral samples that are up to 250,000 years old. The corals can be used to deduce past sea levels. The resulting sea-level record shows that sea levels have varied on millennial time scales even during times of high sea level and relative climate stability.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007053	Ice	The solid substance formed by the FREEZING of water.
D009792	Oceans and Seas	A great expanse of continuous bodies of salt water which together cover more than 70 percent of the earth's surface. Seas may be partially or entirely enclosed by land, and are smaller than the five oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic).	Seas,Oceans,Seas and Oceans
D002980	Climate	The longterm manifestations of WEATHER. (McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)	Climates
D005580	Fossils	Remains, impressions, or traces of animals or plants of past geological times which have been preserved in the earth's crust.	Fossil
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D012621	Seasons	Divisions of the year according to some regularly recurrent phenomena usually astronomical or climatic. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)	Seasonal Variation,Season,Seasonal Variations,Variation, Seasonal,Variations, Seasonal
D012623	Seawater	The salinated water of OCEANS AND SEAS that provides habitat for marine organisms.	Sea Water,Sea Waters,Seawaters,Water, Sea,Waters, Sea
D013696	Temperature	The property of objects that determines the direction of heat flow when they are placed in direct thermal contact. The temperature is the energy of microscopic motions (vibrational and translational) of the particles of atoms.	Temperatures
D013910	Thorium	A radioactive element of the actinide series of metals. It has an atomic symbol Th, atomic number 90, and atomic weight 232.04. It is used as fuel in nuclear reactors to produce fissionable uranium isotopes. Because of its radioopacity, various thorium compounds are used to facilitate visualization in roentgenography.
D013995	Time	The dimension of the physical universe which, at a given place, orders the sequence of events. (McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)	Effects, Long-Term,Effects, Longterm,Long-Term Effects,Longterm Effects,Effect, Long-Term,Effect, Longterm,Effects, Long Term,Long Term Effects,Long-Term Effect,Longterm Effect