Holocene-like summer climate during Marine Isotope Stage 11 in northwestern Greenland

Aguilar, John Michael N.; Thomas, Elizabeth K.; Aga, Diana S.; Bierman, Paul R.; Briner, Jason P.; Castañeda, Isla S.; Christ, Andrew J.

doi:10.5194/cp-22-1757-2026

Articles | Volume 22, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-1757-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

The Camp Century ice and sediment core: new science from a...

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-1757-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 9

Research article

|

28 Sep 2026

Research article |

| 28 Sep 2026

Holocene-like summer climate during Marine Isotope Stage 11 in northwestern Greenland

John Michael N. Aguilar, Elizabeth K. Thomas, Diana S. Aga, Paul R. Bierman, Jason P. Briner, Isla S. Castañeda, and Andrew J. Christ

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-1757-2026-supplement

Data sets

NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Camp Century Northwestern Greenland, Fatty Acids and GDGTs, Early and Mid-Pleistocene John Michael Aguilar et al. https://doi.org/10.25921/8cqa-7a14

Camp Century Leaf Wax and GDGT Proxy Data and Comparative Greenland Paleoclimate Records John Michael Aguilar et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22776307

Short summary

As the Arctic warms, the Greenland Ice Sheet is losing mass, with implications for global sea levels. We analyzed biomarkers from sediments beneath 1387 m of ice at Camp Century, Greenland, deposited when the ice sheet was smaller. Reconstructed summer temperature and precipitation isotopes from ~ 400 000 years ago show summers ~ 4.7 °C warmer than today, with more local moisture from reduced ice. This result highlights that both how warm and how long warming lasts matter to reduce ice loss.