Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core

Dahl-Jensen, D. and Albert, M. R. and Aldahan, A. and Azuma, N. and Balslev-Clausen, D. and Baumgartner, M. and Berggren, A. M. and Bigler, M. and Binder, T. and Blunier, T. and Bourgeois, J. C. and Brook, E. J. and Buchardt, S. L. and Buizert, C. and Capron, E. and Chappellaz, J. and Chung, J. and Clausen, H. B. and Cvijanovic, I. and Davies, S. M. and Ditlevsen, P. and Eicher, O. and Fischer, H. and Fisher, D. A. and Fleet, L. G. and Gfeller, G. and Gkinis, V. and Gogineni, S. and Goto-Azuma, K. and Grinsted, A. and Gudlaugsdottir, H. and Guillevic, M. and Hansen, S. B. and Hansson, M. and Hirabayashi, M. and Hong, S. and Hur, S. D. and Huybrechts, P. and Hvidberg, C. S. and Iizuka, Y. and Jenk, T. and Johnsen, S. J. and Jones, T. R. and Jouzel, J. and Karlsson, N. B. and Kawamura, K. and Keegan, K. and Kettner, E. and Kipfstuhl, S. and Kjaer, H. A. and Koutnik, M. and Kuramoto, T. and Koehler, P. and Laepple, T. and Landais, A. and Langen, P. L. and Larsen, L. B. and Leuenberger, D. and Leuenberger, M. and Leuschen, C. and Li, J. and Lipenkov, V. and Martinerie, P. and Maselli, O. J. and Masson-Delmotte, V. and McConnell, J. R. and Miller, H. and Mini, O. and Miyamoto, A. and Montagnat-Rentier, M. and Mulvaney, R. and Muscheler, R. and Orsi, A. J. and Paden, J. and Panton, C. and Pattyn, F. and Petit, J. R. and Pol, K. and Popp, T. and Possnert, G. and Prie, F. and Prokopiou, M. and Quiquet, A. and Rasmussen, S. O. and Raynaud, D. and Ren, J. and Reutenauer, C. and Ritz, C. and Rockmann, T. and Rosen, J. L. and Rubino, M. and Rybak, O. and Samyn, D. and Sapart, C. J. and Schilt, A. and Schmidt, A. M. Z. and Schwander, J. and Schuepbach, S. and Seierstad, I. and Severinghaus, J. P. and Wolff, E. W. (2013) Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core. Nature, 493 (7433). pp. 489-494. ISSN 0028-0836, ESSN: 1476-4687 DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11789

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Abstract

Efforts to extract a Greenland ice core with a complete record of the Eemian interglacial (130,000 to 115,000 years ago) have until now been unsuccessful. The response of the Greenland ice sheet to the warmer-than-present climate of the Eemian has thus remained unclear. Here we present the new North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (‘NEEM’) ice core and show only a modest ice-sheet response to the strong warming in the early Eemian. We reconstructed the Eemian record from folded ice using globally homogeneous parameters known from dated Greenland and Antarctic ice-core records. On the basis of water stable isotopes, NEEM surface temperatures after the onset of the Eemian (126,000 years ago) peaked at 8 ± 4 degrees Celsius above the mean of the past millennium, followed by a gradual cooling that was probably driven by the decreasing summer insolation. Between 128,000 and 122,000 years ago, the thickness of the northwest Greenland ice sheet decreased by 400 ± 250 metres, reaching surface elevations 122,000 years ago of 130 ± 300 metres lower than the present. Extensive surface melt occurred at the NEEM site during the Eemian, a phenomenon witnessed when melt layers formed again at NEEM during the exceptional heat of July 2012. With additional warming, surface melt might become more common in the future.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	NIL AREP;
Subjects:	01 - Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems
Divisions:	01 - Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems
Journal or Publication Title:	Nature
Volume:	493
Page Range:	pp. 489-494
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11789
Depositing User:	Sarah Humbert
Date Deposited:	03 Jul 2013 16:26
Last Modified:	23 Jul 2013 10:06
URI:	http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/2811

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