Abrupt temperature changes in the Western Mediterranean over the past 250,000 years

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Martrat, Belen, Grimalt, Joan O., López-Martínez, Constancia, Cacho, Isabel, Sierro, Francisco Javier, Flores, José Abel, Zahn, Rainer, Canals, Miquel, Curtis, Jason H., Hodell, David A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2004
• Subjects: Sea surface temperature; SST; Marine isotope stages; MIS; Climate change; Climate cycles; Abrupt temperature changes; Dansgaard-Oeschger events
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/16405; https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1101706

5 pages, 2 figures.-- PMID: 15576615 [PubMed].-- Supporting information available at: www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1762/DC1 A continuous high-resolution Western Mediterranean sea surface temperature (SST) alkenone record spanning the past 250,000 years shows that abrupt changes were more common at warming than at cooling. During marine isotope stage (MIS) 6, SST oscillated following a stadial-interstadial pattern but at lower intensities and rates of change than in the Dansgaard/Oeschger events of MIS 3. Some of the most prominent events occurred over MISs 5 and 7, after prolonged warm periods of high stability. Climate during the whole period was predominantly maintained in interglacial-interstadial conditions, whereas the duration of stadials was much shorter. This work was supported by the Pole-Ocean-Pole (EVK2-2000-00089) and Coordinated European Surface Ocean Palaeoestimation (EVRI1-2001-00009) projects funded by the European Union. Peer reviewed