The Eemian interglacial and its termination

• Published in: Boreas
• Main Authors: DANSGAARD, WILLI, DUPLESSY, JEAN‐CLAUDE
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1981
• Subjects: Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3885.1981.tb00483.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1502-3885.1981.tb00483.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1502-3885.1981.tb00483.x

The development and termination of the Eemian interglacial is important because it may serve as a model showing how the present warm period might end in the event of no anthropogenic impact. The most important methods for studying the Eemian are outlined and critically evaluated. In spite of interpretation and dating problems, the various proxy data seem consistent enough to allow the conclusion that some 120,000 years ago the warm Eemian climate deteriorated rapidly and drastically. The forest vegetation in West Europe was replaced by a tundra type vegetation, and within 5000 or 10,OOO years the volume of continental ice grew to at least double the present volume, corresponding to a sea level 65 m, perhaps 90 m, below that of today. There is considerable disagreement between sea level estimates deduced from geological evidence and from benthic foraminifera oxygen isotope records.