Abrupt change of Antarctic moisture origin at the end of Termination II

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Masson-Delmotte, V., Stenni, B., Blunier, T., Cattani, O., Chappellaz, J., Cheng, H., Dreyfus, G., Edwards, R. L., Falourd, S., Govin, A., Kawamura, K., Johnsen, S. J., Jouzel, J., Landais, A., Lemieux-Dudon, B., Lourantou, A., Marshall, G., Minster, B., Mudelsee, M., Pol, K., Röthlisberger, R., Selmo, E., Waelbroeck, C.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: National Academy of Sciences 2010
• Subjects: Physical Sciences; Antarctic; Indian; Antarc*; Antarctica; ice core; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2901456; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20566887; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0914536107

The deuterium excess of polar ice cores documents past changes in evaporation conditions and moisture origin. New data obtained from the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C East Antarctic ice core provide new insights on the sequence of events involved in Termination II, the transition between the penultimate glacial and interglacial periods. This termination is marked by a north–south seesaw behavior, with first a slow methane concentration rise associated with a strong Antarctic temperature warming and a slow deuterium excess rise. This first step is followed by an abrupt north Atlantic warming, an abrupt resumption of the East Asian summer monsoon, a sharp methane rise, and a CO2 overshoot, which coincide within dating uncertainties with the end of Antarctic optimum. Here, we show that this second phase is marked by a very sharp Dome C centennial deuterium excess rise, revealing abrupt reorganization of atmospheric circulation in the southern Indian Ocean sector.