Structure of the 8200-year cold event revealed by a speleothem trace element record.

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Baldini, J. U. L., McDermott, F., Fairchild, I. J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2002
• Subjects: Oxygen-isotope records; Climate record; Holocene; Greenland; BP; SR; Precipitation; Instability; Stalagmites; Resolution
• Online Access: http://dro.dur.ac.uk/2157/; https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1071776

Abrupt first-order shifts in strontium and phosphorus concentrations in stalagmite calcite deposited in western Ireland during the 8200-year event (the major cooling episode 8200 years before the present) are interpreted as responses to a drier climate lasting about 37 years. Both shifts are centered on 8330 ± 80 years before the present, coinciding with a large oxygen isotope anomaly and a change in the calcite petrography. In this very high resolution (monthly) record, antipathetic second-order oscillations in phosphorus and strontium reveal decreased growth rates and increased rainfall seasonality. Growth rate variations within the event reveal a two-pronged structure consistent with recent model simulations.