Links between MIS 11 millennial to sub-millennial climate variability and long term trends as revealed by new high resolution EPICA Dome C deuterium data – A comparison with the Holocene

K. Pol (1) , Maxime Debret (2) , Valérie Masson-Delmotte (1, 3) , E. Capron (1, 3) , O. Cattani (1, 3) , G. Dreyfus (1, 3) , S. Falourd (1, 3) , S. Johnsen (4) , J. Jouzel (1, 3) , A. Landais (1, 3) , B. Minster (1, 3) , B. Stenni (5)

1 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
2 M2C - Morphodynamique Continentale et Côtière
3 GLACCIOS - Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables
4 Centre for Ice and Climate [Copenhagen]
5 Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche [Trieste]

We expand here the description of the Antarctic temperature variability during the long interglacial period occurring ~400 thousand years before the present (Marine Isotopic Stage, MIS 11). Our study is based on new detailed deuterium measurements conducted on the EPICA Dome C ice core, Antarctica, with a ~50 year temporal resolution. Despite an ice diffusion of a length reaching ~8 cm at MIS 11 depth, the data allow us to highlight a variability at multi-centennial scale for MIS 11, as it has already been observed for the Holocene period (MIS 1). The differences between MIS 1 and MIS 11 are analysed regarding the links between multi-millennial trends and sub-millennial variability. The EPICA Dome C deuterium record shows an increased variability and the onset of millennial to sub-millennial periodicities at the beginning of the final cooling phase of MIS 11. Our findings are robust with respect to sensitivity tests on the somewhat uncertain MIS 11 duration.

Domaines: Climatologie

K. Pol, Maxime Debret, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, E. Capron, O. Cattani, et al.. Links between MIS 11 millennial to sub-millennial climate variability and long term trends as revealed by new high resolution EPICA Dome C deuterium data – A comparison with the Holocene. Climate of the Past, 2011, 7 (2), pp.437 - 450. ⟨10.5194/cp-7-437-2011⟩. ⟨hal-01559486⟩