Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core

Summary, in English

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.

• Författare: D. Dahl-Jensen; M. R. Albert; A. Aldahan; N. Azuma; D. Balslev-Clausen; M. Baumgartner; A. -M. Berggren; M. Bigler; T. Binder; T. Blunier; J. C. Bourgeois; E. J. Brook; S. L. Buchardt; C. Buizert; E. Capron; J. Chappellaz; J. Chung; H. B. Clausen; I. Cvijanovic; S. M. Davies; P. Ditlevsen; O. Eicher; H. Fischer; D. A. Fisher; L. G. Fleet; G. Gfeller; V. Gkinis; S. Gogineni; K. Goto-Azuma; A. Grinsted; H. Gudlaugsdottir; M. Guillevic; S. B. Hansen; M. Hansson; M. Hirabayashi; S. Hong; S. D. Hur; P. Huybrechts; C. S. Hvidberg; Y. Iizuka; T. Jenk; S. J. Johnsen; T. R. Jones; J. Jouzel; N. B. Karlsson; K. Kawamura; K. Keegan; E. Kettner; S. Kipfstuhl; H. A. Kjaer; M. Koutnik; T. Kuramoto; P. Koehler; T. Laepple; A. Landais; P. L. Langen; L. B. Larsen; D. Leuenberger; M. Leuenberger; C. Leuschen; J. Li; V. Lipenkov; P. Martinerie; O. J. Maselli; V. Masson-Delmotte; J. R. McConnell; H. Miller; O. Mini; A. Miyamoto; M. Montagnat-Rentier; R. Mulvaney; Raimund Muscheler; A. J. Orsi; J. Paden; C. Panton; F. Pattyn; J. -R. Petit; K. Pol; T. Popp; G. Possnert; F. Prie; M. Prokopiou; A. Quiquet; S. O. Rasmussen; D. Raynaud; J. Ren; C. Reutenauer; C. Ritz; T. Rockmann; J. L. Rosen; M. Rubino; O. Rybak; D. Samyn; C. J. Sapart; A. Schilt; A. M. Z. Schmidt; J. Schwander; S. Schuepbach; I. Seierstad; J. P. Severinghaus; S. Sheldon; S. B. Simonsen; Jesper Sjolte; A. M. Solgaard; T. Sowers; P. Sperlich; H. C. Steen-Larsen; K. Steffen; J. P. Steffensen; D. Steinhage; T. F. Stocker; C. Stowasser; A. S. Sturevik; W. T. Sturges; A. Sveinbjornsdottir; A. Svensson; J. -L. Tison; J. Uetake; P. Vallelonga; R. S. W. van de Wal; G. van der Wel; B. H. Vaughn; B. Vinther; E. Waddington; A. Wegner; I. Weikusat; J. W. C. White; F. Wilhelms; M. Winstrup; E. Witrant; E. W. Wolff; C. Xiao; J. Zheng
• Avdelning/ar: Kvartärgeologi; MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system; BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
• Publiceringsår: 2013
• Språk: Engelska
• Sidor: 489-494
• Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie: Nature
• Volym: 493
• Issue: 7433
• Länkar: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11789
• Dokumenttyp: Artikel i tidskrift
• Förlag: Nature Publishing Group
• Ämne: Geology
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt: ISSN: 0028-0836