Constraints on the age and duration of the last interglacial period and on sea-level variations

The relation between height and age of shorelines formed during the last interglacial period, as revealed by coral reefs, cannot be related directly to changes in ocean volume because of the effect of isostatic uplift in response to changes in ice-sheet loading. Sea-level changes at sites near the melting ice sheet, such as Bermuda and the Caribbean islands, differ from those along the Australian margin. Modelling of these differences constrains the times of onset and termination of the last interglacial, which are at variance with those deduced from oxygen-isotope studies of deep-sea cores.