Anomalous flow below 2700 m in the EPICA Dome C ice core detected using d 18 O of atmospheric oxygen measurements

• Main Authors: Dreyfus, G. B., Parrenin, F., Lemieux-Dudon, B., Durand, Geoffroy, Masson-Delmotte, Valérie, Jouzel, Jean, Barnola, J.-M., Panno, L., Spahni, R., Tisserand, A., Siegenthaler, U., Leuenberger, M.
• Other Authors: Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Department of Geosciences Princeton, Princeton University, 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), Niels Bohr Institute Copenhagen (NBI), Faculty of Science Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH)-University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet (UCPH), Physics Institute, Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques (EPOC), Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers (OASU), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; EPICA; ice core
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00330721; https://hal.science/hal-00330721/document; https://hal.science/hal-00330721/file/cpd-3-63-2007.pdf

International audience While there are no indications of mixing back to 800 000 years in the EPICA Dome C ice core record, comparison with marine sediment records shows significant differences in the timing and duration of events prior to stage 11 (~430 ka, thousand of years before 1950). A relationship between the isotopic composition of atmospheric oxygen (d 18 O of O 2 , noted d 18 O atm ) and daily northern hemisphere summer insolation has been observed for the youngest four climate cycles. Here we use this relationship with new d 18 O of O 2 measurements to show that anomalous flow in the bottom 500 m of the core distorts the duration of events by up to a factor of 2. By tuning d 18 O atm to orbital precession we derive a corrected thinning function and present a revised age scale for the interval corresponding to Marine Isotope Stages 11–20 in the EPICA Dome C ice core. Uncertainty in the phasing of d 18 O atm with respect to insolation variations in the precession band limits the accuracy of this new agescale to ±6 kyr (thousand of years). The previously reported ~30 kyr duration of interglacial stage 11 is unchanged. In contrast, the duration of stage 15.1 is reduced by a factor of 2, from 31 to 16 kyr.