Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core

• Published in: Nature
• Main Authors: Dahl-Jensen, D., R. Albert, M., Aldahan, A., Azuma, N., Balslev-Clausen, D., Baumgartner, M., Berggren, A.-M., Bigler, M., Binder, T., Blunier, T., C. Bourgeois, J., J. Brook, E., L. Buchardt, S., Buizert, C., Capron, E., Chappellaz, J., Chung, J., B. Clausen, H., Cvijanovic, I., M. Davies, S., Ditlevsen, P., Eicher, O., Fischer, H., Fisher, D.A., G. Fleet, L., Gfeller, G., Gkinis, V., Gogineni, S., Goto-Azuma, K., Grinsted, A., Gudlaugsdottir, H., Guillevic, M., B. Hansen, S., Hansson, M., Hirabayashi, M., Hong, S., D. Hur, S., Huybrechts, P., S. Hvidberg, C., Iizuka, Y., Jenk, T., J. Johnsen, S., R. Jones, T., Jouzel, Jean, B. Karlsson, N., Kawamura, K., Keegan, K., Kettner, E., Kipfstuhl, S., A. Kjær, H., Koutnik, M., Kuramoto, T., Köhler, P., Laepple, T., Landais, A., L. Langen, P., B. Larsen, L., Leuenberger, D., Leuenberger, M., Leuschen, C., Li, J., Lipenkov, V., Martinerie, P., J. Maselli, O., Masson-Delmotte, Valérie, R. Mcconnell, J., Miller, H., Mini, O., Miyamoto, A., Montagnat-Rentier, M., Mulvaney, R., Muscheler, R., J. Orsi, A., Paden, J., Panton, C., Pattyn, F., Petit, J.-R., Pol, K., Popp, T., Possnert, G., Prié, F., Prokopiou, M., Quiquet, A., O. Rasmussen, S., Raynaud, D., Ren, J., Reutenauer, C., Ritz, C., Röckmann, T., L. Rosen, J., Rubino, M., Rybak, O., Samyn, D., J. Sapart, C., Schilt, A., M. Z. Schmidt, A., Schwander, J., Schüpbach, S., Seierstad, I., P. Severinghaus, J., Sheldon, S., B. Simonsen, S., Sjolte, J., M. Solgaard, A., Sowers, T., Sperlich, P., C. Steen-Larsen, H., Steffen, K., P. Steffensen, J., Steinhage, D., F. Stocker, T., Stowasser, C., S. Sturevik, A., T. Sturges, W., Sveinbjörnsdottir, A., Svensson, A., Tison, J.-L., Uetake, J., Vallelonga, P., S. W. van de Wal, R., van Der Wel, G., H. Vaughn, B., Vinther, B., Waddington, E., Wegner, A., Weikusat, I., W. C. White, J., Wilhelms, F., Winstrup, M., Witrant, Emmanuel, W. Wolff, E., Xiao, C., Zheng, J.
• Other Authors: Centre for Ice and Climate Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute Copenhagen (NBI), Faculty of Science Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH)-University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH)-Faculty of Science Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH)-University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH), Climate and Environmental Physics Bern (CEP), Physikalisches Institut Bern, Universität Bern / University of Bern (UNIBE)-Universität Bern / University of Bern (UNIBE), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables (GLACCIOS), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Department of Chemistry, Università degli Studi di Firenze = University of Florence = Université de Florence (UniFI), Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages (UMR G-EAU), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-AgroParisTech-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud ), Departement Geografie, National Institute of Polar Research Tokyo (NiPR), Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung = Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research = Institut Alfred-Wegener pour la recherche polaire et marine (AWI), Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association, National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder (NCAR), Department of Bentho-pelagic processes, Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association-Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association, British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences Lund, Skane University Hospital Lund, Laboratoire de Glaciologie, Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement, Department of Geological Sciences Boulder, University of Colorado Boulder, Angström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU), Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University Utrecht, EAST CHINA UNIVERSITY, KEY LAB, Scientific Research Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow (RAS), Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), Universität Bern / University of Bern (UNIBE), Physics Institute, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI), Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Penn State System-Penn State System, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; Antarctic; Greenland; Antarc*; Greenland ice core; ice core; Ice Sheet; North Greenland
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00821220; https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11789

International audience Efforts to extract a Greenland ice core with a complete record of the Eemian interglacial (130,000 to 115,000 years ago) have until now been unsuccessful. The response of the Greenland ice sheet to the warmer-than-present climate of the Eemian has thus remained unclear. Here we present the new North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling ('NEEM') ice core and show only a modest ice-sheet response to the strong warming in the early Eemian. We reconstructed the Eemian record from folded ice using globally homogeneous parameters known from dated Greenland and Antarctic ice-core records. On the basis of water stable isotopes, NEEM surface temperatures after the onset of the Eemian (126,000 years ago) peaked at 8 +/- 4 degrees Celsius above the mean of the past millennium, followed by a gradual cooling that was probably driven by the decreasing summer insolation. Between 128,000 and 122,000 years ago, the thickness of the northwest Greenland ice sheet decreased by 400 +/- 250 metres, reaching surface elevations 122,000 years ago of 130 +/- 300 metres lower than the present. Extensive surface melt occurred at the NEEM site during the Eemian, a phenomenon witnessed when melt layers formed again at NEEM during the exceptional heat of July 2012. With additional warming, surface melt might become more common in the future.