Dansgaard-Oeschger-like events of the penultimate climate cycle: the loess point of view

• Published in: Climate of the Past
• Main Authors: Rousseau, Denis-Didier, Antoine, Pierre, Boers, Niklas, Lagroix, France, Ghil, Michael, Lomax, Johanna, Fuchs, Markus, Debret, Maxime, Hatté, Christine, Moine, Olivier, Gauthier, Caroline, Jordanova, Diana, Jordanova, Neli
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris, École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL), Laboratoire de géographie physique : Environnements Quaternaires et Actuels (LGP), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UP1)-Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP (UMR_7154)), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de La Réunion (UR)-Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPG Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité), Department of Geography, Justus-Liebig- University, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen = Justus Liebig University (JLU), Morphodynamique Continentale et Côtière (M2C), Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN), Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rouen Normandie (UNIROUEN), Normandie Université (NU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Géochrononologie Traceurs Archéométrie (GEOTRAC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), CNRS-INSU LEFE (grant no. 2017-GEOPOUS), the CNRS-INSU SYSTER (grant no. 2012-31124A), PHC Rila program (project no. 34286QB)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.CL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Climatology; Greenland; Greenland ice core; ice core
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02537811; https://hal.science/hal-02537811/document; https://hal.science/hal-02537811/file/cp-16-713-2020.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-713-2020

(IF 4.29; Q1) International audience The global character of the millennial-scale climate variability associated with the Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events in Greenland has been well-established for the last glacial cycle. Mainly due to the sparsity of reliable data, however, the spatial coherence of corresponding variability during the penultimate cycle is less clear. New investigations of European loess records from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 reveal the occurrence of alternating loess intervals and paleosols (incipient soil horizons), similar to those from the last climatic cycle. These paleosols are correlated, based on their stratigraphical position and numbers as well as available optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates, with in-terstadials described in various Northern Hemisphere records and in GLt_syn, the synthetic 800 kyr record of Greenland ice core δ 18 O. Therefore, referring to the interstadials described in the record of the last climate cycle in European loess sequences, the four MIS 6 interstadials can confidently be interpreted as DO-like events of the penultimate climate cycle. Six more interstadials are identified from proxy measurements performed on the same interval, leading to a total of 10 interstadials with a DO-like event status. The statistical similarity between the millennial-scale loess-paleosol oscillations during the last and penultimate climate cycle provides direct empirical evidence that the cycles of the penultimate cycle are indeed of the same nature as the DO cycles originally discovered for the last glacial cycle. Our results thus imply that their underlying cause and global imprint were characteristic of at least the last two climate cycles.