Lake sediments as continental δ18O records from the glacial/post-glacial transition
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Date of Publication
1984
Publication Type
Conference Paper
Contributor
Siegenthaler, U. | |
Eicher, U. | |
Oeschger, H. | |
Dansgaard, W. |
Subject(s)
Series
Annals of glaciology
ISSN or ISBN (if monograph)
0260-3055
Publisher
International Glaciological Society
Language
English
Publisher DOI
BORIS DOI
Description
As in polar ice, 18O variations of precipitation are recorded in carbonate sediments formed in lakes (lake marl). We have analyzed many late-glacial profiles from Europe, There are strong l8O variations which coincide with well-known pollen zone boundaries and which indicate that abrupt, drastic climatic changes occurred in the late glacial period. These events are a major warming around 13 ka BP (pollen zone boundary Oldest Dryas/Bölling) and a marked cold phase between about 10.8 and 10 ka BP (Younger Dryas). Comparison of the δ18O records of European lake sediments and of Greenland ice cores reveal a striking similarity which indicates that climatic changes in the late glacial and early postglacial were parallel in Greenland and in Europe. First results from North American lake-sediment profiles do not exhibit similar δ18O variations. This pattern of climatic changes was probably caused by retreating and readvancing polar water in the high-latitude North Atlantic Ocean, as discussed by Ruddiman and McIntyre (1981).