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Timing of abrupt climate change at the end of the Younger Dryas interval from thermally fractionated gases in polar ice.

Author(s) : SEVERINGHAUS J. P., SOWERS T., BROOK E. J., ALLEY R. B., BENDER M. L.

Type of article: Article

Summary

Rapid temperature change fractionates gas isotopes in unconsolidated snow, producing a signal that is preserved in trapped air bubbles as the snow forms ice. The fractionation of nitrogen and argon isotopes at the end of the Younger Dryas cold interval recorded in Greenland ice, demonstrates that warming at this time was abrupt. This warming coincides with the onset of a prominent rise in atmospheric methane concentration, indicating that the climate change was synchronous (within a few decades) over a region of at least hemispheric extent, and providing constraints on previously proposed mechanisms of climate change at this time.

Details

  • Original title: Timing of abrupt climate change at the end of the Younger Dryas interval from thermally fractionated gases in polar ice.
  • Record ID : 1999-0594
  • Languages: English
  • Source: Nature - vol. 391 - n. 6663
  • Publication date: 1998/01/08
  • Document available for consultation in the library of the IIR headquarters only.

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