Long-Term Phanerozoic Global Mean Sea Level

Insights from strontium isotope variations and estimates of continental glaciation

Douwe van der Meer, CNOOC (UK) / Utrecht University, douwevdm@gmail.com

Benjamin Mills, University of Leeds, UK
Christopher Scotese, Northwestern University, USA
Appy Sluijs, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Aart-Peter van de Berg van Saparoea, Netherlands
Ruben van de Weg, CNOOC, UK

IAGR 2023 annual conference, Niigata, Japan

Global Mean Sea Level
Important for sedimentology, paleo-climate, evolution of life

Isotopes, (Van der Meer et al. 2022)

Stratigraphic (Haq et al. 2005-2018)
Continental flooding (Marcilly et al. 2022)
Tectonic modelling (Verard et al. 2015)
Tectonic modelling (Karlsen et al. 2020)
Tectonic modelling (Wright et al. 2020)
Tectonic modelling (Young et al. 2022)

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 The search for a Phanerozoic new sea level curve
Focus on tectonic and glacio-eustasy

Scotese et al. (2021):

A new standard for paleo-temperature

Van der Meer et al. (2022): GR Best paper award

A new standard for paleo-ice
A new standard for paleo-sea-level

Van der Meer et al. (2017)

 Eustatic components
Tectonic and glacio-eustasy are most important
High amplitude

• Focus on 1+ Myr
• Main components (>>100m):
• Tectonics (oceanic crustal spreading)
• Glaciations (land/shelf ice)
• Secondary components (≤100m):
• Aquifers
• Sedimentation
• Large Igneous Provinces?
• Tertiary components (≤10m):
• Thermal Expansion

• Can we construct a new sea level curve

focussing on the main components?
Long term • Using isotopes

Ray et al. (2019) / Simmons et al. (Geological Time Scale 2020)

Tectonic eustasy
More crustal spreading leads to shallower oceans

Old crust Young crust Old crust

Deep ocean floor shallow ocean floor Deep ocean floor

M
id
-O
ce
an
-R
id
g e

• Crustal spreading rate (km2/Myr) dictates tectonic eustasy

• More spreading will lead to shallower ocean, sea level rise
• Less spreading will lead to deeper ocean, sea level fall
• How much did it vary through time?
• Strontium isotopes can be used to quantify Mid-Ocean-Ridge
crustal spreading (van der Meer et al. 2017)

Illustrations source: Wikipedia, NOAA

Crustal spreading through time
Strontium isotopes provide insight into crustal spreading rates

• Sr/86Sr record (McArthur, GTS 2020)

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• From marine carbonates fossil record

• Very small error margins
Ratio of crustal spreading rate (km2/Myr) • Balance of mantle and weathering inputs (Allegre, 2010):
• Radiogenic: weathering of continental crust, granites
• Non-radiogenic: MOR basalts, arc volcanism

• Strontium isotope record is proxy for sea level

• Corrected for weathering inputs
• Quantify mid-ocean-ridge crustal spreading
Van der Meer • Average ocean depth
Van der Meer
et al. 2022 et al. 2017 • Global Mean Sea Level

• Methodology published Van der Meer et al. (2017)

• Updated in 2022 using global run-off (Mills et al., 2021)

• Mesozoic had double crustal spreading rate

compared to Present
Glacio-eustasy
Land ice and shelf ice affect ocean water volume

• Land Ice:
• When melts, full contribution to
I ce s
he ocean water volume
on la e t
nd • Ocean water vol. = 0.9 * Ice vol
I ce s
hee
on sh t grounde
elf se d
abed
• Shelf Ice:
Shoreline

Floating ice
• When melts, partial contribution
Land to ocean water volume
• Calculated net effect on ocean

Ground
water

line
• Floating Ice:
S eab
ed Sea • In isostatic equilibrium
• No effect on ocean water
volume
Perennial ice latitude through time
At 1 Myr steps, not including short term cyclicity (<1Myr)

Ice latitude derived from Scotese et al. (2021)

• Paleolatitude T≤-10°C
• Trend match with glacial deposits
• Discrepancy likely due to preservation at
high latitudes and <<1Myr variability during
glacial extremes at lower latitudes

From ice latitudes to perennial ice area:

• Plate tectonic and elevation reconstruction
(Scotese & Wright 2018)
• Land or sea bed at ≤ 1000m
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Ice volumes through time
Paleo-temperature, paleogeography dictate ice sheets

Net Ice Total

• From ice areas to ice volumes:
Correlation &
extrapolation • Assumed constant ice thickness
Land Ice
using Cenozoic • Correlation with Cenozoic (Stap et al. 2017)
climate model • Average ice thickness 1.4 +/-0.4 km
• Extrapolate constant average ice thickness
Shelf Ice (net)
for ice caps for entire Phanerozoic
• Provides ice volume through time

• First Phanerozoic ice volume reconstruction

Early Paleozoic Late Paleozoic Mesozoic-Eocene Late Cenozoic

Icehouse Icehouse Greenhouse Icehouse
Glacio-eustasy through time
From ice volumes to sea level variations

All Present-Day ice melted

• Net ice volume converted to ocean water
volume
• Converted to sea level, assuming present-
day hypsometry
• 1 Myr time steps
• Up to 90 meters glacio-eustasy

Early Paleozoic Late Paleozoic Mesozoic-Eocene Late Cenozoic

Icehouse Icehouse Greenhouse Icehouse
Tectono-Glacio-Eustatic (TGE) curve
Phanerozoic eustasy 250 m amplitude
Tectono-Glacio-Eustasy (TGE)
Sum (& error bounds)

Tectonic eustasy
from strontium isotopes, weathering corrected

Highest tectonic activity

Glacio-eustasy
from paleo-temperature, land/shelf distribution
All Present-Day ice melted

Eustatic amplitude (isostatically corrected)

• ~200m from plate tectonics
• ~90m from glaciations (≥ 1 Myr)
• ~250m throughout Phanerozoic

Late Carboniferous: Late-Jurassic-Eocene: Present:

very low high very low
 L.Jurassic-Eocene sea level high
Shelfal areas twice as large as Present

+200 m
Turonian Gross Depositional Environment (Chris Scotese) Mosasaurus (Campanian-Maastrichtian)
Conclusions
• Oceanic crustal spreading and long-term continental ice are primary drivers for eustasy (>100m)

• Tectono-Glacio-Eustatic (TGE) curve (van der Meer et al. 2022):

• Based on isotope geochemistry (strontium, oxygen)
• Independent from stratigraphic methods
• Independent from plate tectonic modelling

• New reconstruction for Phanerozoic ice

• New reconstruction for Global Mean Sea Level

• This research was supported by the University of Leeds’

‘Earth Evolution Modelling Group’, who are hiring funded
PhDs (deadline mid Jan), postdocs, and are welcoming
visiting scholars. https://bjwmills.com/

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THANKS