Ice and sediment cores in paleoclimatology

Samuel Masoni
Quentin Impagliazzo
Luci-Lou Hebert

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Ice cores
Sediment cores
(from the lake or from the sea-floor)

Summary

Summary

INTRODUCTION

II- Sediment Cores

I- Ice Cores

1) Lake Sediments
A/ What can we learn thanks to lake sediment cores

1) Introduction

B/ Which methods are used to determine age within the core

2) History of ice core research

3) Techniques used in ice core research and dating
strategies
4) Measurements performed on the ice

2) Seafloor Sediments
A/ Drilling Techniques and Repartition
B/ Cores Identification and Description

5) Dating Strategy

C/ Sediment composition and geographic distribution

6) A general overview of climates of the past as seen

from ice cores and related proxies:

D/ Cores Dating

7) What past climates are relevant to modern-day and

future climate change?
8) What more research is needed? (Four challenges)

E/ Advantages and disadvantages of seafloor sediment

cores

CONCLUSION
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I. Ice Cores

I. Ice Cores
1) Introduction https://www.youtube.com/embed/T69_diWYbkQ?rel=0

I. Ice Cores

2) History of ice core research

1960 : Ice core research started

1st core drilling at Camp Century in Greenland
GRIP (European) and GIPS2 (US) project
Antarctica (Vostok, Dome C) EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica)

I. Ice Cores

3) Techniques used in ice core research and dating strategies

I. Ice Cores

3) Techniques used in ice core research and dating strategies

DIFFICULTIES:

The access to the drilling site

The extreme climatic conditions
The need to use a drilling fluid to prevent the hole from closing
The improvement of drilling techniques

I. Ice Cores

4) Measurments performed on the ice

Which Climate Properties Do We Have Access to ?

Temperature
Accumulation rate
Origin of the precipitation
Atmospheric composition
Other climate parameters
Volcanic and solar forcings

I. Ice Cores

5) Dating Strategy

1) Layer counting (only for Greenland, not for Antarctica)

2) Glaciological modeling
3) Use of time markers correlation
4) Comparison with insolation changes (orbital tuning)

I. Ice Cores

6) A general overview of climates of the past

as seen from the ice cores and related proxies

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I. Ice Cores

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I. Ice Cores

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I. Ice Cores

7) What past climates are relevent to modern-day and future climate change ?

Anthropogenic perturbation

Greenhouse gas concentration never been so hight

Projected climate change compare to past climate change

Future climate change = abrupt events

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I. Ice Cores

8) What more research needed ? 4 Challenges

1) The first Challenge : Obtain an undisturbed Antarctic ice core climate record prior to 1.2 million

years ago

2) The second Challenge : Obtain an undisturbed Greenland ice core climate record covering the
integrity of the last interglacial periods

3) The third Challenge : The full description of millennial scale variability

4 ) The final Challenge : The ultra-high-resolution records of climate variability and climate
forcings spanning the past 2000 years

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II. Sediment Cores

II. Sediment cores

1) Lake sediments
A/ What can we learn thanks to lake sediments cores ?

Water level (the depth of flowing water).

Lake drying
Frost

Oxygenation
Exceptional events
Living conditions for organisms in the lake
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II. Sediment Cores

B/ Which methods are used to determine age within the core ?

Magnetic Reversal
Tephrochronology

Radiocarbon Analysis

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II. Sediment Cores

2) Seafloor Sediments
A/ Drilling Techniques and Geographical Repartition
Drilling techniques
- Difficulty : keep the sediment compact
- Different techniques for different kinds
of sediments

Expedition and price:

- A common expedition
- Drilling speed : 1 m/h
- Drilling cost : 3500 $/m

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II. Sediment Cores

A/ Drilling Techniques and Geographical Repartition

Geographical repartition :

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II. Sediment Cores

B/ Cores Identification and Description

How to identify cores :
-

LEG : which expedition

SITE: where

HOLE : which hole

CORE: how deep

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II. Sediment Cores

B/ Cores Identification an Description

How to describe cores:

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II. Sediment Cores

C/ Sediment composition and geographic distribution

Type of sediments
Origin of sediments
Sediment Map

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II. Sediment Cores

D/ Cores Dating

Biostratigraphy (microfossils)
Magnetic Reversal

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II. Sediment Cores

E/ Advantages and disadvantages of seafloor sediment cores

Advantages

Disadvantages

- Old enough to record the

Cenozoic sediments

- High cost

- Can be dated

- Some discontinuity

- Large geographical repartition

- Technical difficulties

- Many types of information

-Low resolution

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CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION
Ice cores:
- 123 000 (greenland)
to 800 000 years (antartica)
- Global geographic scale
- High resolution
Lake sediment cores:
- 800 000 years
- Local geographic scale
- High resolution
Seafloor sediment cores :
- 100 millions years
- Global geographic scale
- Low resolution
Reconstruct the past climates
plan the futur climates

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Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jouzel, J., & MassonDelmotte, V. (2010). Paleoclimates: what do we learn from deep ice
cores?. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 1(5), 654-669.

Menking, K. M. (1995). Paleoclimatic Reconstruction's from Owens Lake Core OL-92,

Southeastern California (No. AFRL-SR-BL-TR-98-0026). Air force research lab bolling afb dc.

Worksheet correction

Which Climate Properties Do We Have Access to ?:

What are the 4 challenges in ice core research? :
Which clue can give information about :
Water level (the depth of flowing water)
Frost
Exceptional events

Lake drying
Oxygenation

Find the correct number :

Drilling speed : .. m/h

Drilling cost : .... $/m

Which information gives :

LEG :

SITE:

HOLE :

CORE:

Examples of information listed in the table:

How do you imagine our future ?

Will we survive ? In which conditions ?

Thank you for your attention