Precise timing and characterization of abrupt climate change 8200 years ago from air trapped in polar ice

• Main Authors: Takuro Kobashia, Jeffrey P. Severinghausa, Edward J. Brookb, Jean-marc Barnolac, Alexi M. Gracheva B
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Greenland; Greenland ice core; ice core
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.462.9271; http://www.science.oregonstate.edu/~brooke/Recent_Publications_files/Kobashi et al._2007.pdf

How fast and how much climate can change has significant implications for concerns about future climate changes and their potential impacts on society. An abrupt climate change 8200 years ago (8.2 ka event) provides a test case to understand possible future climatic variability. Here, methane concentration (taken as an indicator for terrestrial hydrology) and nitrogen isotopes (Greenland temperature) in trapped air in a Greenland ice core (GISP2) are employed to scrutinize the evolution of the 8.2 ka event. The synchronous change in methane and nitrogen implies that the 8.2 ka event was a synchronous event (within 74 years) at a hemispheric scale, as indicated by