800,000 Years of Abrupt Climate Variability

Barker, Stephen and Knorr, Gregor and Edwards, R. Lawrence and Parrenin, Frédéric and Putnam, Aaron E. and Skinner, Luke C. and Wolff, Eric and Ziegler, Martin (2011) 800,000 Years of Abrupt Climate Variability. Science, 334 (6054). 347 -351. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online) DOI https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1203580

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Abstract

We constructed an 800,000-year synthetic record of Greenland climate variability based on the thermal bipolar seesaw model. Our Greenland analog reproduces much of the variability seen in the Greenland ice cores over the past 100,000 years. The synthetic record shows strong similarity with the absolutely dated speleothem record from China, allowing us to place ice core records within an absolute timeframe for the past 400,000 years. Hence, it provides both a stratigraphic reference and a conceptual basis for assessing the long-term evolution of millennial-scale variability and its potential role in climate change at longer time scales. Indeed, we provide evidence for a ubiquitous association between bipolar seesaw oscillations and glacial terminations throughout the Middle to Late Pleistocene.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	2011AREO; IA63;
Subjects:	04 - Palaeobiology
Divisions:	01 - Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems
Journal or Publication Title:	Science
Volume:	334
Page Range:	347 -351
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1203580
Depositing User:	Sarah Humbert
Date Deposited:	22 Oct 2011 13:58
Last Modified:	07 Aug 2013 11:16
URI:	http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/2223

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