The transition from the Last Glacial Period in inland and near-coastal Antarctica

R. Mulvaney (1) , R. Röthlisberger (2) , E. Wolff (1) , S. Sommer (2) , J. Schwander (2) , M. Hutterli (2) , J. Jouzel (3, 4)

1 BAS - British Antarctic Survey
2 CEP - Climate and Environmental Physics [Bern]
3 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
4 GLACCIOS - Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables

Recent studies suggested that, during the transition out of the last glacial period, one near-coastal site in Antarctica showed a response similar to that of Greenland, and unlike that of central Antarctica. Here, we present a new high-resolution record of calcium from Dome C, Antarctica. Changes in flux of calcium, an indicator of dust input from other continents, should be synchronous across the region and probably the continent. Using Ca to synchronise records, we find that the main warming at the near-coastal site of Taylor Dome was slower than suggested previously, and similar to that of central Antarctica. Until there is further evidence, it is still a reasonable hypothesis that Antarctic climate behaved more or less as a single unit during the transition. Recently, new records were published from an ice core at Taylor Dome (TD, Fig. 1), a near-coastal dome site in East Antarctica [Steig et at., 1998]. Again, synchronisation was carried out using methane and oxygen isotopes in air.

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère; Interfaces continentales, environnement

R. Mulvaney, R. Röthlisberger, E. Wolff, S. Sommer, J. Schwander, et al.. The transition from the Last Glacial Period in inland and near-coastal Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters, 2000, 27 (17), pp.2673-2676. ⟨10.1029/1999GL011254⟩. ⟨hal-03110176⟩