Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica

Jean-Robert Petit (1) , Jean Jouzel (2, 3) , Dominique Raynaud (4) , Nartsiss Irinarkhovich Barkov (5) , Jean-Marc Barnola (1) , Isabelle Basile-Doelsch (6) , Michael Bender (7) , Jérôme Chappellaz (1) , Mike Davis (8) , Gilles Delaygue (1) , Marc Delmotte (2) , Vladimir Kotlyakov (9) , Michel Legrand (1) , Vladimir Lipenkov (5) , Claude Lorius (1) , Laurence Pepin (1) , Catherine Ritz (1) , Eric Saltzman (8) , Michel Stiévenard (2, 3, 10)

1 LGGE - Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement
2 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
3 GLACCIOS - Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables
4 UGA [2016-2019] - Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019]
5 AARI - Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
6 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement
7 Princeton University
8 RSMAS - Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
9 Institute of Geography of RAS
10 GEOTRAC - Géochrononologie Traceurs Archéométrie

The recent completion of drilling at Vostok station in East Antarctica has allowed the extension of the ice record of atmospheric composition and climate to the past four glacial-interglacial cycles. The succession of changes through each climate cycle and termination was similar, and atmospheric;and climate properties oscillated between stable bounds. Interglacial periods differed in temporal evolution and duration. Atmospheric: concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane correlate well with Antarctic air-temperature throughout the record. Present-day atmospheric burdens of these two important greenhouse gases seem to have been unprecedented during the past 420,000 years.

Mots clés: LAST GLACIAL PERIOD; EAST ANTARCTICA; NORTH-ATLANTIC; GREENLAND CLIMATE; CO2; FUTURE; DUST

Domaines: Glaciologie

Jean-Robert Petit, Jean Jouzel, Dominique Raynaud, Nartsiss Irinarkhovich Barkov, Jean-Marc Barnola, et al.. Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature, 1999, 399 (6735), pp.429-436. ⟨10.1038/20859⟩. ⟨hal-00756651⟩