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Raimund Muscheler

Raimund Muscheler

Professor

Raimund Muscheler

Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core

Author

  • D. Dahl-Jensen
  • M. R. Albert
  • A. Aldahan
  • N. Azuma
  • D. Balslev-Clausen
  • M. Baumgartner
  • A. -M. Berggren
  • M. Bigler
  • T. Binder
  • T. Blunier
  • J. C. Bourgeois
  • E. J. Brook
  • S. L. Buchardt
  • C. Buizert
  • E. Capron
  • J. Chappellaz
  • J. Chung
  • H. B. Clausen
  • I. Cvijanovic
  • S. M. Davies
  • P. Ditlevsen
  • O. Eicher
  • H. Fischer
  • D. A. Fisher
  • L. G. Fleet
  • G. Gfeller
  • V. Gkinis
  • S. Gogineni
  • K. Goto-Azuma
  • A. Grinsted
  • H. Gudlaugsdottir
  • M. Guillevic
  • S. B. Hansen
  • M. Hansson
  • M. Hirabayashi
  • S. Hong
  • S. D. Hur
  • P. Huybrechts
  • C. S. Hvidberg
  • Y. Iizuka
  • T. Jenk
  • S. J. Johnsen
  • T. R. Jones
  • J. Jouzel
  • N. B. Karlsson
  • K. Kawamura
  • K. Keegan
  • E. Kettner
  • S. Kipfstuhl
  • H. A. Kjaer
  • M. Koutnik
  • T. Kuramoto
  • P. Koehler
  • T. Laepple
  • A. Landais
  • P. L. Langen
  • L. B. Larsen
  • D. Leuenberger
  • M. Leuenberger
  • C. Leuschen
  • J. Li
  • V. Lipenkov
  • P. Martinerie
  • O. J. Maselli
  • V. Masson-Delmotte
  • J. R. McConnell
  • H. Miller
  • O. Mini
  • A. Miyamoto
  • M. Montagnat-Rentier
  • R. Mulvaney
  • Raimund Muscheler
  • A. J. Orsi
  • J. Paden
  • C. Panton
  • F. Pattyn
  • J. -R. Petit
  • K. Pol
  • T. Popp
  • G. Possnert
  • F. Prie
  • M. Prokopiou
  • A. Quiquet
  • S. O. Rasmussen
  • D. Raynaud
  • J. Ren
  • C. Reutenauer
  • C. Ritz
  • T. Rockmann
  • J. L. Rosen
  • M. Rubino
  • O. Rybak
  • D. Samyn
  • C. J. Sapart
  • A. Schilt
  • A. M. Z. Schmidt
  • J. Schwander
  • S. Schuepbach
  • I. Seierstad
  • J. P. Severinghaus
  • S. Sheldon
  • S. B. Simonsen
  • Jesper Sjolte
  • A. M. Solgaard
  • T. Sowers
  • P. Sperlich
  • H. C. Steen-Larsen
  • K. Steffen
  • J. P. Steffensen
  • D. Steinhage
  • T. F. Stocker
  • C. Stowasser
  • A. S. Sturevik
  • W. T. Sturges
  • A. Sveinbjornsdottir
  • A. Svensson
  • J. -L. Tison
  • J. Uetake
  • P. Vallelonga
  • R. S. W. van de Wal
  • G. van der Wel
  • B. H. Vaughn
  • B. Vinther
  • E. Waddington
  • A. Wegner
  • I. Weikusat
  • J. W. C. White
  • F. Wilhelms
  • M. Winstrup
  • E. Witrant
  • E. W. Wolff
  • C. Xiao
  • J. Zheng

Summary, in English

Efforts to extract a Greenland ice core with a complete record of the Eemian interglacial (130,000 to 115,000 years ago) have until now been unsuccessful. The response of the Greenland ice sheet to the warmer-than-present climate of the Eemian has thus remained unclear. Here we present the new North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling ('NEEM') ice core and show only a modest ice-sheet response to the strong warming in the early Eemian. We reconstructed the Eemian record from folded ice using globally homogeneous parameters known from dated Greenland and Antarctic ice-core records. On the basis of water stable isotopes, NEEM surface temperatures after the onset of the Eemian (126,000 years ago) peaked at 8 +/- 4 degrees Celsius above the mean of the past millennium, followed by a gradual cooling that was probably driven by the decreasing summer insolation. Between 128,000 and 122,000 years ago, the thickness of the northwest Greenland ice sheet decreased by 400 +/- 250 metres, reaching surface elevations 122,000 years ago of 130 +/- 300 metres lower than the present. Extensive surface melt occurred at the NEEM site during the Eemian, a phenomenon witnessed when melt layers formed again at NEEM during the exceptional heat of July 2012. With additional warming, surface melt might become more common in the future.

Department/s

  • Quaternary Sciences
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Pages

489-494

Publication/Series

Nature

Volume

493

Issue

7433

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Geology

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0028-0836