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Raimund Muscheler

Raimund Muscheler

Professor

Raimund Muscheler

A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago

Author

  • Alan Cooper
  • Chris S.M. Turney
  • Jonathan Palmer
  • Alan Hogg
  • Matt McGlone
  • Janet Wilmshurst
  • Andrew M. Lorrey
  • Timothy J. Heaton
  • James M. Russell
  • Ken McCracken
  • Julien G. Anet
  • Eugene Rozanov
  • Marina Friedel
  • Ivo Suter
  • Thomas Peter
  • Raimund Muscheler
  • Florian Adolphi
  • Anthony Dosseto
  • J. Tyler Faith
  • Pavla Fenwick
  • Christopher J. Fogwill
  • Konrad Hughen
  • Mathew Lipson
  • Jiabo Liu
  • Norbert Nowaczyk
  • Eleanor Rainsley
  • Christopher Bronk Ramsey
  • Paolo Sebastianelli
  • Yassine Souilmi
  • Janelle Stevenson
  • Zoë Thomas
  • Raymond Tobler
  • Roland Zech

Summary, in English

Geological archives record multiple reversals of Earth’s magnetic poles, but the global impacts of these events, if any, remain unclear. Uncertain radiocarbon calibration has limited investigation of the potential effects of the last major magnetic inversion, known as the Laschamps Excursion [41 to 42 thousand years ago (ka)]. We use ancient New Zealand kauri trees (Agathis australis) to develop a detailed record of atmospheric radiocarbon levels across the Laschamps Excursion. We precisely characterize the geomagnetic reversal and perform global chemistry-climate modeling and detailed radiocarbon dating of paleoenvironmental records to investigate impacts. We find that geomagnetic field minima ~42 ka, in combination with Grand Solar Minima, caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration and circulation, driving synchronous global climate shifts that caused major environmental changes, extinction events, and transformations in the archaeological record.

Department/s

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

Publishing year

2021

Language

English

Pages

811-818

Publication/Series

Science

Volume

371

Issue

6531

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Topic

  • Geology

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0036-8075