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Timing of Millennial-Scale Climate Change in Antarctica and Greenland During the Last Glacial Period
Thomas Blunier,1*Edward J. Brook2
A precise relative chronology for Greenland and West Antarctic
paleotemperature is extended to 90,000 years ago, based oncorrelation
of atmospheric methane records from the GreenlandIce Sheet Project 2 and Byrd ice cores. Over this period, theonset of seven major
millennial-scale warmings in Antarctica precededthe onset of Greenland
warmings by 1500 to 3000 years. In general,Antarctic temperatures
increased gradually while Greenland temperatureswere decreasing or
constant, and the termination of Antarcticwarming was apparently
coincident with the onset of rapid warmingin Greenland. This pattern
provides further evidence for the operationof a "bipolar see-saw"
in air temperatures and an oceanic teleconnectionbetween the
hemispheres on millennial time scales.
1 Department of Geosciences, Guyot Hall,
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Climate and
Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern,
Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
2 Department of Geology and Program in Environmental
Science, Washington State University, 14204 Northeast Salmon Creek
Avenue, Vancouver, WA 98686, USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
blunier{at}princeton.edu
The editors suggest the following Related Resources on Science sites:
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PERSPECTIVES
Nicholas Shackleton (5 January 2001) Science291 (5501), 58.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.10.1126/SCIENCE.1057253] |Summary »|Full Text »
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