Stratigraphic templates for ice core records of the past 1.5 Myr ...

Abstract. The international ice core community has a target to obtain continuous ice cores stretching back as far as 1.5 Myr. This would provide vital data (including a CO2 profile) allowing us to assess ideas about the cause of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT). The European Beyond EPICA project...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wolff, EW, Fischer, H, Van Ommen, T, Hodell, DA
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus GmbH 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.86702
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/339294
Description
Summary:Abstract. The international ice core community has a target to obtain continuous ice cores stretching back as far as 1.5 Myr. This would provide vital data (including a CO2 profile) allowing us to assess ideas about the cause of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT). The European Beyond EPICA project and the Australian Million Year Ice Core project each plan to drill such a core in the region known as Little Dome C. Dating the cores will be challenging, and one approach will be to match some of the records obtained with existing marine sediment datasets, informed by similarities in the existing 800 kyr period. Water isotopes in Antarctica have been shown to closely mirror deepwater temperature, estimated from Mg/Ca ratios of benthic foraminifera, in a marine core on the Chatham Rise near to New Zealand. The dust record in ice cores resembles very closely a South Atlantic marine record of iron accumulation rate. By assuming these relationships continue beyond 800 ka, our ice core record could be synchronised ...