Atmospheric Methane and Nitrous Oxide of the Late Pleistocene from Antarctic Ice Cores

The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C ice core enables us to extend existing records of atmospheric methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) back to 650,000 years before the present. A combined record of CH 4 measured along the Dome C and the Vostok ice cores demonstrates, within...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Spahni, Renato, Chappellaz, Jérôme, Stocker, Thomas F., Loulergue, Laetitia, Hausammann, Gregor, Kawamura, Kenji, Flückiger, Jacqueline, Schwander, Jakob, Raynaud, Dominique, Masson-Delmotte, Valérie, Jouzel, Jean
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2005
Subjects:
Antarctic
Antarc*
Antarctica
ice core
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1120132
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1120132
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Summary:The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C ice core enables us to extend existing records of atmospheric methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) back to 650,000 years before the present. A combined record of CH 4 measured along the Dome C and the Vostok ice cores demonstrates, within the resolution of our measurements, that preindustrial concentrations over Antarctica have not exceeded 773 ± 15 ppbv (parts per billion by volume) during the past 650,000 years. Before 420,000 years ago, when interglacials were cooler, maximum CH 4 concentrations were only about 600 ppbv, similar to lower Holocene values. In contrast, the N 2 O record shows maximum concentrations of 278 ± 7 ppbv, slightly higher than early Holocene values.

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