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Originally published in Science Express on 5 July 2007
Science 10 August 2007:
Vol. 317. no. 5839, pp. 793 - 796
DOI: 10.1126/science.1141038
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Reports

Orbital and Millennial Antarctic Climate Variability over the Past 800,000 Years

J. Jouzel,1* V. Masson-Delmotte,1 O. Cattani,1 G. Dreyfus,1 S. Falourd,1 G. Hoffmann,1 B. Minster,1 J. Nouet,1 J. M. Barnola,2 J. Chappellaz,2 H. Fischer,3 J. C. Gallet,2 S. Johnsen,4,5 M. Leuenberger,6 L. Loulergue,2 D. Luethi,6 H. Oerter,3 F. Parrenin,2 G. Raisbeck,7 D. Raynaud,2 A. Schilt,6 J. Schwander,6 E. Selmo,8 R. Souchez,9 R. Spahni,6 B. Stauffer,6 J. P. Steffensen,2 B. Stenni,10 T. F. Stocker,6 J. L. Tison,9 M. Werner,11 E. W. Wolff12

A high-resolution deuterium profile is now available along the entire European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C ice core, extending this climate record back to marine isotope stage 20.2, ~800,000 years ago. Experiments performed with an atmospheric general circulation model including water isotopes support its temperature interpretation. We assessed the general correspondence between Dansgaard-Oeschger events and their smoothed Antarctic counterparts for this Dome C record, which reveals the presence of such features with similar amplitudes during previous glacial periods. We suggest that the interplay between obliquity and precession accounts for the variable intensity of interglacial periods in ice core records.

1 Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et l'Environnement/Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, CEA-CNRS–Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines, CE Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
2 Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement, CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier, Boîte Postale 96, 38402, Saint Martin d'Hères, France.
3 Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Columbusstrasse, D27568 Bremerhaven, Germany.
4 Department of Geophysics, Juliane Maries Vej 30, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
5 Science Institute, University of Reykjavik, Dunhaga 3, Reykjavik 107, Iceland.
6 Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
7 Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse/CNRS, Bat 108, 91405, Orsay, France.
8 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Parma, 43100 Parma, Italy.
9 Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
10 Department of Geological, Environmental and Marine Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy.
11 Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, 100164, D7701 Jena, Germany.
12 British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jean.jouzel{at}lsce.ipsl.fr

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