Iceberg Discharges into the North Atlantic on Millennial Time Scales During the Last Glaciation

High-resolution studies of North Atlantic deep sea cores demonstrate that prominent increases in iceberg calving recurred at intervals of 2000 to 3000 years, much more frequently than the 7000- to 10,000-year pacing of massive ice discharges associated with Heinrich events. The calving cycles correl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Bond, Gerard C., Lotti, Rusty
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1995
Subjects:
Greenland
Dansgaard-Oeschger events
Greenland ice cores
Ice Sheet
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.267.5200.1005
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.267.5200.1005
Description
Summary:High-resolution studies of North Atlantic deep sea cores demonstrate that prominent increases in iceberg calving recurred at intervals of 2000 to 3000 years, much more frequently than the 7000- to 10,000-year pacing of massive ice discharges associated with Heinrich events. The calving cycles correlate with warm-cold oscillations, called Dansgaard-Oeschger events, in Greenland ice cores. Each cycle records synchronous discharges of ice from different sources, and the cycles are decoupled from sea-surface temperatures. These findings point to a mechanism operating within the atmosphere that caused rapid oscillations in air temperatures above Greenland and in calving from more than one ice sheet.

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