Sea Level Rises Less from Greenland, more from Antarctica
Melting patterns during the last interglacial period were
surprising.        The researchers analyzed silt from an ocean-
floor core taken from a region off the southern tip of Greenland
that receives sediments carried by meltwater streams off the ice
sheet. They used different patterns of radiogenic isotopes to
identify sources of the sediment, tracing the silt back to one
of three "terranes" or regions, each with a distinct geochemical
signature. The patterns of sedimentation show which terranes
were still glaciated at that time.  "If the land deglaciates,
you lose that sediment," Carlson explains. But to their
surprise, they found that all the terranes were still supplying
sediment throughout the last interglacial period and thus still
had some ice cover.  "The ice definitely retreated to smaller
than present extent and definitely raised sea level to higher
than present" and continued to melt throughout the warm period,
he adds, but the sediment ana