Connecting the Greenland ice-core and U∕Th timescales via cosmogenic radionuclides: testing the synchroneity of Dansgaard–Oeschger events
During the last glacial period Northern Hemisphere climate was characterized by extreme and abrupt climate changes, so-called Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events. Most clearly observed as temperature changes in Greenland ice-core records, their climatic imprint was geographically widespread. However, the...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:cp70313 2023-05-15T16:00:04+02:00 Connecting the Greenland ice-core and U∕Th timescales via cosmogenic radionuclides: testing the synchroneity of Dansgaard–Oeschger events Adolphi, Florian Bronk Ramsey, Christopher Erhardt, Tobias Edwards, R. Lawrence Cheng, Hai Turney, Chris S. M. Cooper, Alan Svensson, Anders Rasmussen, Sune O. Fischer, Hubertus Muscheler, Raimund 2018-11-20 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1755-2018 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/14/1755/2018/ eng eng doi:10.5194/cp-14-1755-2018 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/14/1755/2018/ eISSN: 1814-9332 Text 2018 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1755-2018 2020-07-20T16:23:02Z During the last glacial period Northern Hemisphere climate was characterized by extreme and abrupt climate changes, so-called Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events. Most clearly observed as temperature changes in Greenland ice-core records, their climatic imprint was geographically widespread. However, the temporal relation between DO events in Greenland and other regions is uncertain due to the chronological uncertainties of each archive, limiting our ability to test hypotheses of synchronous change. In contrast, the assumption of direct synchrony of climate changes forms the basis of many timescales. Here, we use cosmogenic radionuclides ( 10 Be , 36 Cl , 14 C ) to link Greenland ice-core records to U∕Th -dated speleothems, quantify offsets between the two timescales, and improve their absolute dating back to 45 000 years ago. This approach allows us to test the assumption that DO events occurred synchronously between Greenland ice-core and tropical speleothem records with unprecedented precision. We find that the onset of DO events occurs within synchronization uncertainties in all investigated records. Importantly, we demonstrate that local discrepancies remain in the temporal development of rapid climate change for specific events and speleothems. These may either be related to the location of proxy records relative to the shifting atmospheric fronts or to underestimated U∕Th dating uncertainties. Our study thus highlights the potential for misleading interpretations of the Earth system when applying the common practice of climate wiggle matching. Text Dansgaard-Oeschger events Greenland Greenland ice core ice core Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Greenland Climate of the Past 14 11 1755 1781 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
During the last glacial period Northern Hemisphere climate was characterized by extreme and abrupt climate changes, so-called Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events. Most clearly observed as temperature changes in Greenland ice-core records, their climatic imprint was geographically widespread. However, the temporal relation between DO events in Greenland and other regions is uncertain due to the chronological uncertainties of each archive, limiting our ability to test hypotheses of synchronous change. In contrast, the assumption of direct synchrony of climate changes forms the basis of many timescales. Here, we use cosmogenic radionuclides ( 10 Be , 36 Cl , 14 C ) to link Greenland ice-core records to U∕Th -dated speleothems, quantify offsets between the two timescales, and improve their absolute dating back to 45 000 years ago. This approach allows us to test the assumption that DO events occurred synchronously between Greenland ice-core and tropical speleothem records with unprecedented precision. We find that the onset of DO events occurs within synchronization uncertainties in all investigated records. Importantly, we demonstrate that local discrepancies remain in the temporal development of rapid climate change for specific events and speleothems. These may either be related to the location of proxy records relative to the shifting atmospheric fronts or to underestimated U∕Th dating uncertainties. Our study thus highlights the potential for misleading interpretations of the Earth system when applying the common practice of climate wiggle matching. |
format |
Text |
author |
Adolphi, Florian Bronk Ramsey, Christopher Erhardt, Tobias Edwards, R. Lawrence Cheng, Hai Turney, Chris S. M. Cooper, Alan Svensson, Anders Rasmussen, Sune O. Fischer, Hubertus Muscheler, Raimund |
spellingShingle |
Adolphi, Florian Bronk Ramsey, Christopher Erhardt, Tobias Edwards, R. Lawrence Cheng, Hai Turney, Chris S. M. Cooper, Alan Svensson, Anders Rasmussen, Sune O. Fischer, Hubertus Muscheler, Raimund Connecting the Greenland ice-core and U∕Th timescales via cosmogenic radionuclides: testing the synchroneity of Dansgaard–Oeschger events |
author_facet |
Adolphi, Florian Bronk Ramsey, Christopher Erhardt, Tobias Edwards, R. Lawrence Cheng, Hai Turney, Chris S. M. Cooper, Alan Svensson, Anders Rasmussen, Sune O. Fischer, Hubertus Muscheler, Raimund |
author_sort |
Adolphi, Florian |
title |
Connecting the Greenland ice-core and U∕Th timescales via cosmogenic radionuclides: testing the synchroneity of Dansgaard–Oeschger events |
title_short |
Connecting the Greenland ice-core and U∕Th timescales via cosmogenic radionuclides: testing the synchroneity of Dansgaard–Oeschger events |
title_full |
Connecting the Greenland ice-core and U∕Th timescales via cosmogenic radionuclides: testing the synchroneity of Dansgaard–Oeschger events |
title_fullStr |
Connecting the Greenland ice-core and U∕Th timescales via cosmogenic radionuclides: testing the synchroneity of Dansgaard–Oeschger events |
title_full_unstemmed |
Connecting the Greenland ice-core and U∕Th timescales via cosmogenic radionuclides: testing the synchroneity of Dansgaard–Oeschger events |
title_sort |
connecting the greenland ice-core and u∕th timescales via cosmogenic radionuclides: testing the synchroneity of dansgaard–oeschger events |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1755-2018 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/14/1755/2018/ |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Dansgaard-Oeschger events Greenland Greenland ice core ice core |
genre_facet |
Dansgaard-Oeschger events Greenland Greenland ice core ice core |
op_source |
eISSN: 1814-9332 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/cp-14-1755-2018 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/14/1755/2018/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1755-2018 |
container_title |
Climate of the Past |
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14 |
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11 |
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1755 |
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1781 |
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1766395936798408704 |