Climate of the Past
Climate of the Past
Climate of the Past
Articles | Volume 12, issue 3
Articles | Volume 12, issue 3
Clim. Past, 12, 769–786, 2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-769-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Clim. Past, 12, 769–786, 2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-769-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Articles | Volume 12, issue 3

Research article 30 Mar 2016

Research article | 30 Mar 2016

The WAIS Divide deep ice core WD2014 chronology – Part 2: Annual-layer counting (0–31 ka BP)

Michael Sigl1,2, Tyler J. Fudge3, Mai Winstrup3,a, Jihong Cole-Dai4, David Ferris5, Joseph R. McConnell1, Ken C. Taylor1, Kees C. Welten6, Thomas E. Woodruff7, Florian Adolphi8, Marion Bisiaux1, Edward J. Brook9, Christo Buizert9, Marc W. Caffee7,10, Nelia W. Dunbar11, Ross Edwards1,b, Lei Geng4,5,12,d, Nels Iverson11, Bess Koffman13, Lawrence Layman1, Olivia J. Maselli1, Kenneth McGwire1, Raimund Muscheler8, Kunihiko Nishiizumi6, Daniel R. Pasteris1, Rachael H. Rhodes9,c, and Todd A. Sowers14 Michael Sigl et al.
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  • 1Desert Research Institute, Nevada System of Higher Education, Reno, NV 89512, USA
  • 2Laboratory for Radiochemistry and Environmental Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland
  • 3Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
  • 4Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA
  • 5Dartmouth College Department of Earth Sciences, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
  • 6Space Science Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
  • 7Department of Physics and Astronomy, PRIME Laboratory, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
  • 8Department of Geology, Lund University, 223 62 Lund, Sweden
  • 9College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
  • 10Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
  • 11New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources Earth and Environmental Science Department, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM 87801, USA
  • 12Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
  • 13Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
  • 14Department of Geosciences and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
  • anow at: Centre for Ice and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
  • bnow at: Department of Physics, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia
  • cnow at: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, UK
  • dnow at: Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE), Université Grenoble Alpes, 3800 Grenoble, France
Received: 12 Jun 2015 – Discussion started: 24 Jul 2015 – Revised: 10 Feb 2016 – Accepted: 25 Feb 2016 – Published: 30 Mar 2016

Abstract. We present the WD2014 chronology for the upper part (0–2850 m; 31.2 ka BP) of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide (WD) ice core. The chronology is based on counting of annual layers observed in the chemical, dust and electrical conductivity records. These layers are caused by seasonal changes in the source, transport, and deposition of aerosols. The measurements were interpreted manually and with the aid of two automated methods. We validated the chronology by comparing to two high-accuracy, absolutely dated chronologies. For the Holocene, the cosmogenic isotope records of 10Be from WAIS Divide and 14C for IntCal13 demonstrated that WD2014 was consistently accurate to better than 0.5 % of the age. For the glacial period, comparisons to the Hulu Cave chronology demonstrated that WD2014 had an accuracy of better than 1 % of the age at three abrupt climate change events between 27 and 31 ka. WD2014 has consistently younger ages than Greenland ice core chronologies during most of the Holocene. For the Younger Dryas–Preboreal transition (11.595 ka; 24 years younger) and the Bølling–Allerød Warming (14.621 ka; 7 years younger), WD2014 ages are within the combined uncertainties of the timescales. Given its high accuracy, WD2014 can become a reference chronology for the Southern Hemisphere, with synchronization to other chronologies feasible using high-quality proxies of volcanism, solar activity, atmospheric mineral dust, and atmospheric methane concentrations.

How to cite. Sigl, M., Fudge, T. J., Winstrup, M., Cole-Dai, J., Ferris, D., McConnell, J. R., Taylor, K. C., Welten, K. C., Woodruff, T. E., Adolphi, F., Bisiaux, M., Brook, E. J., Buizert, C., Caffee, M. W., Dunbar, N. W., Edwards, R., Geng, L., Iverson, N., Koffman, B., Layman, L., Maselli, O. J., McGwire, K., Muscheler, R., Nishiizumi, K., Pasteris, D. R., Rhodes, R. H., and Sowers, T. A.: The WAIS Divide deep ice core WD2014 chronology – Part 2: Annual-layer counting (0–31 ka BP), Clim. Past, 12, 769–786, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-769-2016, 2016.
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Short summary
Here we present a chronology (WD2014) for the upper part (0–2850 m; 31.2 ka BP) of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice core, which is based on layer counting of distinctive annual cycles preserved in the elemental, chemical and electrical conductivity records. We validated the chronology by comparing it to independent high-accuracy, absolutely dated chronologies. Given its demonstrated high accuracy, WD2014 can become a reference chronology for the Southern Hemisphere.
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