Synchronous timing of abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period have been detected in a global array of palaeoclimate records, but our understanding of their absolute timing and regional synchrony is incomplete. Our compilation of 63 published, independently dated speleothem records shows that abrupt warmings in Greenland were associated with synchronous climate changes across the Asian Monsoon, South American Monsoon, and European-Mediterranean regions that occurred within decades. Together with the demonstration of bipolar synchrony in atmospheric response, this provides independent evidence of synchronous high-latitude-to-tropical coupling of climate changes during these abrupt warmings. Our results provide a globally coherent framework with which to validate model simulations of abrupt climate change and to constrain ice-core chronologies.
Source: Science
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, The University of Melbourne, Laboratoire Environnements, Dynamiques et Territoires de Montagne, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Université Grenoble Alpes, University of Copenhagen, British Antarctic Survey, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Lanzhou University, University of Basel, University of Cambridge
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3078705653