Resolving the Younger Dryas event through borehole thermometry

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Author: Firestone, John
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1995
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Greenland; Dye 3; Dye-3; Ice Sheet; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000017743; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000017743

Abstract Meltwater influxes may partly explain the low oxygen-isotope values measured in the Dye 3 and Camp Century ire cores. This has led to speculation that Greenland may not have cooled during the Younger Dryas and underlined the need for independent checks of the oxygen-isotope record. Using optimal control methods and heat-flow modeling, the author makes a valiant but ultimately futile attempt to distinguish the Younger Dryas event in the ice-sheet temperatures measured at Dye 3, south Greenland. The author discusses the prospects for attempting the same in the new Summit boreholes in central Greenland: how that will require more accurate temperature measurements, a coupled thermo-mechanical model and a refined uncertainty analysis. He concludes by discussing how borehole-temperature analysis may improve the climate histories determined from ire cores.