Articles | Volume 18, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-7627-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-7627-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
A review of Last Interglacial sea-level proxies in South Asia and the Indian Ocean
Mubashir Ali
Department for Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics (DAIS), Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, 30172 Venice, Italy
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy
Ciro Cerrone
Department for Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics (DAIS), Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, 30172 Venice, Italy
International Centre for Climate Change Research and Studies (CSRCC), Franchetti Palace, San Marco 2847, 30124 Venice, Italy
Department of Mathematics, Informatics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, 34128 Trieste, Italy
Department for Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics (DAIS), Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, 30172 Venice, Italy
MARUM, Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Leobener Str. 8, 28359 Bremen, Germany
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Patrick Boyden, Donghao Li, Sonia Bejarano, Benjamin Mueller, Christian Wild, Eric Mijts, Giovanni Scicchitano, Giovanni Scardino, Denovan Chauveau, Ute Merkel, Yusuf C. El-Khaled, Paolo Stocchi, Mark Vermeij, and Alessio Rovere
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.31223/X58Q9J, https://doi.org/10.31223/X58Q9J, 2026
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Exposed fossil reefs from Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao reveal that during the Last Interglacial (~125,000 years ago), reefs thrived on both windward and leeward coasts. However today, living reefs are mostly confined to the sheltered leeward coasts. We tie this dichotomy to weaker trade winds and calmer seas in the southern Caribbean at the onset of the Last Interglacial. This contrast highlights how changing ocean and wind patterns have substantially shaped reef resilience through time.
Andrew Hollyday, Maureen E. Raymo, Jacqueline Austermann, Fred Richards, Mark Hoggard, and Alessio Rovere
Earth Surf. Dynam., 12, 883–905, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-883-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-883-2024, 2024
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Sea level was significantly higher during the Pliocene epoch, around 3 million years ago. The present-day elevations of shorelines that formed in the past provide a data constraint on the extent of ice sheet melt and the global sea level response under warm Pliocene conditions. In this study, we identify 10 escarpments that formed from wave-cut erosion during Pliocene times and compare their elevations with model predictions of solid Earth deformation processes to estimate past sea level.
Patrick Boyden, Paolo Stocchi, and Alessio Rovere
Earth Surf. Dynam., 11, 917–931, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-917-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-917-2023, 2023
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Preservation bias often hampers the extraction of sea level changes from the stratigraphic record. In this contribution, we use a forward stratigraphic model to build three synthetic subtropical fringing reefs for a site in southwestern Madagascar (Indian Ocean). Each of the three synthetic reefs represents a different ice sheet melt scenario for the Pleistocene. We then evaluate each resultant reef sequence against the observed stratigraphic record.
Paolo Scussolini, Job Dullaart, Sanne Muis, Alessio Rovere, Pepijn Bakker, Dim Coumou, Hans Renssen, Philip J. Ward, and Jeroen C. J. H. Aerts
Clim. Past, 19, 141–157, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-141-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-141-2023, 2023
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We reconstruct sea level extremes due to storm surges in a past warmer climate. We employ a novel combination of paleoclimate modeling and global ocean hydrodynamic modeling. We find that during the Last Interglacial, about 127 000 years ago, seasonal sea level extremes were indeed significantly different – higher or lower – on long stretches of the global coast. These changes are associated with different patterns of atmospheric storminess linked with meridional shifts in wind bands.
Alessio Rovere, Deirdre D. Ryan, Matteo Vacchi, Andrea Dutton, Alexander R. Simms, and Colin V. Murray-Wallace
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1–23, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1-2023, 2023
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In this work, we describe WALIS, the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines. WALIS is a sea-level database that includes sea-level proxies and samples dated to marine isotope stage 5 (~ 80 to 130 ka). The database was built through topical data compilations included in a special issue in this journal.
Karla Rubio-Sandoval, Alessio Rovere, Ciro Cerrone, Paolo Stocchi, Thomas Lorscheid, Thomas Felis, Ann-Kathrin Petersen, and Deirdre D. Ryan
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4819–4845, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4819-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4819-2021, 2021
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The Last Interglacial (LIG) is a warm period characterized by a higher-than-present sea level. For this reason, scientists use it as an analog for future climatic conditions. In this paper, we use the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines database to standardize LIG sea-level data along the coasts of the western Atlantic and mainland Caribbean, identifying 55 unique sea-level indicators.
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Short summary
We compiled a database of 54 ancient shoreline markers from Iran, Oman, India, the Maldives and the Cocos Islands, dating to Marine Isotopic Stage 5. The records show that the same past ocean level can appear far above today's sea on rising coasts, near today's level on stable coasts, and many meters underwater where land is sinking. This helps separate true ocean change from land motion and improves future sea-level planning.
We compiled a database of 54 ancient shoreline markers from Iran, Oman, India, the Maldives and...
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