Were last glacial climate events simultaneous between Greenland and France? A quantitative comparison using non-tuned chronologies

TY - JOUR

T1 - Were last glacial climate events simultaneous between Greenland and France? A quantitative comparison using non-tuned chronologies

AU - Blaauw, Maarten

AU - Wohlfarth, Barbara

AU - Christen, J. Andrés

AU - Ampel, Linda

AU - Veres, Daniel

AU - Hughen, Konrad A.

AU - Preusser, Frank

AU - Svensson, Anders

N1 - Paper id:: DOI: 10.1002/jqs.1330

PY - 2010/3/1

Y1 - 2010/3/1

N2 - Several large abrupt climate fluctuations during the last glacial have been recorded in Greenland ice cores and archives from other regions. Often these Dansgaard-Oeschger events are assumed to have been synchronous over wide areas, and then used as tie-points to link chronologies between the proxy archives. However, it has not yet been tested independently whether or not these events were indeed synchronous over large areas. Here, we compare Dansgaard-Oeschger-type events in a well-dated record from southeastern France with those in Greenland ice cores. Instead of assuming simultaneous climate events between both archives, we keep their age models independent. Even these well-dated archives possess large chronological uncertainties that prevent us from inferring synchronous climate events at decadal to multi-centennial time scales. If possible, comparisons between proxy archives should be based on independent, non-tuned time-scales.

AB - Several large abrupt climate fluctuations during the last glacial have been recorded in Greenland ice cores and archives from other regions. Often these Dansgaard-Oeschger events are assumed to have been synchronous over wide areas, and then used as tie-points to link chronologies between the proxy archives. However, it has not yet been tested independently whether or not these events were indeed synchronous over large areas. Here, we compare Dansgaard-Oeschger-type events in a well-dated record from southeastern France with those in Greenland ice cores. Instead of assuming simultaneous climate events between both archives, we keep their age models independent. Even these well-dated archives possess large chronological uncertainties that prevent us from inferring synchronous climate events at decadal to multi-centennial time scales. If possible, comparisons between proxy archives should be based on independent, non-tuned time-scales.

U2 - 10.1002/jqs.1330

DO - 10.1002/jqs.1330

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0267-8179

VL - 25

SP - 387

EP - 394

JO - Journal of Quaternary Science

JF - Journal of Quaternary Science

IS - 3

ER -