Research article
29 Apr 2011
Research article | 29 Apr 2011
Links between MIS 11 millennial to sub-millennial climate variability and long term trends as revealed by new high resolution EPICA Dome C deuterium data – A comparison with the Holocene
K. Pol1, M. Debret2, V. Masson-Delmotte1, E. Capron1, O. Cattani1, G. Dreyfus1,3, S. Falourd1, S. Johnsen4, J. Jouzel1, A. Landais1, B. Minster1, and B. Stenni5
K. Pol et al.
K. Pol1, M. Debret2, V. Masson-Delmotte1, E. Capron1, O. Cattani1, G. Dreyfus1,3, S. Falourd1, S. Johnsen4, J. Jouzel1, A. Landais1, B. Minster1, and B. Stenni5
- 1Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL, CEA CNRS UVSQ, UMR 8212, CEA Saclay, L'Orme-des-Merisiers, 91191 Gif-Sur-Yvette Cedex, France
- 2Laboratoire De Morphodynamique Continentale et Côtière – UMR CNRS 6143, Bât IRESE A, Département de Géologie, Université de Rouen, 76821 Mont Saint Aignan Cedex, France
- 3Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- 4Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- 5Università di Trieste, Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Ambientali e Marine, Via E. Weiss 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
- 1Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL, CEA CNRS UVSQ, UMR 8212, CEA Saclay, L'Orme-des-Merisiers, 91191 Gif-Sur-Yvette Cedex, France
- 2Laboratoire De Morphodynamique Continentale et Côtière – UMR CNRS 6143, Bât IRESE A, Département de Géologie, Université de Rouen, 76821 Mont Saint Aignan Cedex, France
- 3Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- 4Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- 5Università di Trieste, Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Ambientali e Marine, Via E. Weiss 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
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Received: 28 Jul 2010 – Discussion started: 20 Sep 2010 – Revised: 02 Mar 2011 – Accepted: 11 Mar 2011 – Published: 29 Apr 2011
We expand here the description of the Antarctic temperature variability during the long interglacial period occurring ~400 thousand years before the present (Marine Isotopic Stage, MIS 11). Our study is based on new detailed deuterium measurements conducted on the EPICA Dome C ice core, Antarctica, with a ~50 year temporal resolution. Despite an ice diffusion of a length reaching ~8 cm at MIS 11 depth, the data allow us to highlight a variability at multi-centennial scale for MIS 11, as it has already been observed for the Holocene period (MIS 1). The differences between MIS 1 and MIS 11 are analysed regarding the links between multi-millennial trends and sub-millennial variability. The EPICA Dome C deuterium record shows an increased variability and the onset of millennial to sub-millennial periodicities at the beginning of the final cooling phase of MIS 11. Our findings are robust with respect to sensitivity tests on the somewhat uncertain MIS 11 duration.
