Abrupt Temperature Changes in the Western Mediterranean over the Past 250,000 Years

A continuous high-resolution Western Mediterranean sea surface temperature (SST) alkenone record spanning the past 250,000 years shows that abrupt changes were more common at warming than at cooling. During marine isotope stage (MIS) 6, SST oscillated following a stadial-interstadial pattern but at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Martrat, Belen, Grimalt, Joan O., Lopez-Martinez, Constancia, Cacho, Isabel, Sierro, Francisco J., Flores, Jose Abel, Zahn, Rainer, Canals, Miquel, Curtis, Jason H., Hodell, David A.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2004
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Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1101706
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1101706
Description
Summary:A continuous high-resolution Western Mediterranean sea surface temperature (SST) alkenone record spanning the past 250,000 years shows that abrupt changes were more common at warming than at cooling. During marine isotope stage (MIS) 6, SST oscillated following a stadial-interstadial pattern but at lower intensities and rates of change than in the Dansgaard/Oeschger events of MIS 3. Some of the most prominent events occurred over MISs 5 and 7, after prolonged warm periods of high stability. Climate during the whole period was predominantly maintained in interglacial-interstadial conditions, whereas the duration of stadials was much shorter.