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Glacial Climates
Gerard Bond et al.
Science 278, 1257 (1997);
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5341.1257
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
thick and nearly complete Holocene sec-
A Pervasive Millennial-Scale tions (Table 1 and Fig. 2). Core top ages are
less than 1000 years (all ages are in calendar
Cycle in North Atlantic years B.P. unless otherwise indicated). Sed-
imentation rates in both cores exceeded 10
Holocene and Glacial Climates cm per 1000 years, more than sufficient to
resolve millennial-scale variability, and the
rates were nearly constant (Fig. 2). We
Gerard Bond,* William Showers, Maziet Cheseby, Rusty Lotti, sampled both cores at intervals of 0.5 to 1
Peter Almasi, Peter deMenocal, Paul Priore, Heidi Cullen, cm (equivalent to a resolution of 50 to 100
Irka Hajdas, Georges Bonani years), and in each sample we measured
nine proxies (6).
The Holocene signal: Episodes of ice-
Evidence from North Atlantic deep sea cores reveals that abrupt shifts punctuated what rafting. The most conspicuous evidence of
is conventionally thought to have been a relatively stable Holocene climate. During each variations in the North Atlantic’s Holo-
of these episodes, cool, ice-bearing waters from north of Iceland were advected as far cene climate comes from the same three
south as the latitude of Britain. At about the same times, the atmospheric circulation proxies that we used to document ice-raft-
above Greenland changed abruptly. Pacings of the Holocene events and of abrupt ing in the North Atlantic during the last
climate shifts during the last glaciation are statistically the same; together, they make up glaciation (7). One proxy is the concentra-
a series of climate shifts with a cyclicity close to 1470 6 500 years. The Holocene events, tion of lithic grains, defined as the number
therefore, appear to be the most recent manifestation of a pervasive millennial-scale of grains with diameters greater than 150
60°N
50°N
40°N
Fig. 1. Location of cores we analyzed and principal surface currents in the hematite-stained grains. Dashed black line encloses core tops with $15%
North Atlantic and Nordic Seas. The green dots and green line are loca- Icelandic glass. Histogram insert summarizes core top data for hematite-
tions of COADS temperature estimates and the profile in Fig. 4A. The line stained grains showing contrast in percentages north and south of the
from A to B is the line of the cross section of petrologic data shown in Fig. Denmark Strait and Iceland-Faeroes frontal systems, indicated by blue
4B. Small dots and plus signs are locations of core tops analyzed for the shading. Locations of red beds in East Greenland and Svalbard are from
two petrologic tracers; numbers (from left to right) are percentage of (7). Surface currents: EGC, East Greenland Current; JMC, Jan Mayen
hematite-stained grains, percentage of Icelandic glass, and core locator Current; WSC, West Spitsbergen Current; EIC, East Iceland Current;
number [core locations and site numbers can be obtained from the first WGC, West Greenland Current; LC, Labrador Current; NAC, North Atlantic
author; see also (17 )]. Shaded red area encloses core tops with $10% Current; IC, Irminger Current.
1260
Age (103 years) Concentration and petrology of lithic grains Concentration and abundance of planktonic foraminifera Stable isotopes Event Age
(103 years B.P.)
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Increasing ice-rafting Cooler ocean surface temperatures
14
0 C Cal.
1 1.6 1.4
10
20 AMS 14C dates 2 2.7 2.8
30 Calendar age 3 4.0 4.3
40 4 5.2 5.9
14
C age model
50
60 5 7.4 8.2
70
6 8.6 9.5
80
Depth (cm)
90 7 9.1 10.3
SCIENCE
100
110 8 9.8 11.1
2 2.6 2.7
20
30
3 3.8 4.1
40 Calendar age
50
14 4 5.1 5.8
C age model
Depth (cm)
70
5 7.2 8.0
80
6 8.5 9.4
90 7 9.2 10.4
8?
100 YD 10.6 12.5
Petrologic counting
error (4% at 2σ) 400 100 1 0 30 0 100 50 0 2.0 1.5
Lithic grains/g 103 foraminifera/g % G. quinqueloba % N. pachyderma (s.) δ18O in G.
(expanded scale) bulloides (per mil)
Temperature (°C)
cene events, taking into account all of the records. much cooling might have occurred during each of profile
In the lithic and N. pachyderma (s.) records, the the Holocene events at VM 29-191. The rationale 10 Location of "modern"
Holocene events become evident only after ex- is as follows: Within the Nordic Seas, there is only faunal assemblage
analog
panding the horizontal scales. The record from VM one place where the core top or “modern” abun-
28-14 lacks the oldest event, most likely because dances of N. pachyderma (s.), G. quinqueloba, 5
of anomalously low sedimentation rates. Hema- and N. pachyderma (d.) are within the ranges of
tite-stained grain percentages are always given on their values at the IRD peaks in VM 29-191. That is VM 29-191 Iceland-Faeroes
0 B A
an ash-free basis and are thus independent of vari- a rather narrow area just south of the Iceland- Front
ations in the material coming solely from Iceland. Faeroes Front, between ;60° and 62°N (10). On 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80
Petrologic counting error is from (8). Radiocarbon the basis of COADS temperature data averaged Latitude (°N)
age– and calendar age–depth models are based over the last 150 years, comparable to the dura- 30 B
Hematite-stained grains
on data in Table 1 and were produced by assum- tion of a single point in our records, the mean Peak values of
25
Greenland and Svalbard (Fig. 1) and per- that ambient temperatures at VM 29-191 were
5
haps from farther north around the Arctic comparable to those of today, then probably 2°C
where warm and cool surface waters mix sections demonstrate the difference in percentag- 20
(Figs. 1 and 4B). The low tracer percentages es of the two tracers north and south of the Ice- B A
0
in Labrador Sea ice, therefore, likely reflect land-Faeroes frontal system and the relation of
40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80
melting of tracer-rich ice in the Denmark those changes to the peak values of the tracers in Latitude (°N)
Strait frontal system and the dearth of he- our record from VM 29-191, as in Fig. 2.
matite-bearing sources of IRD around the
Labrador Sea (7).
Hence, the North Atlantic’s surface cir- culation must have alternated between two Thus, with a single mechanism—an os-
modes. At times of minimum concentra- cillating ocean surface circulation—we can
tions of IRD and warmer sea surface tem- explain at once the synchronous ocean sur-
peratures at the coring sites, circulation face coolings, changes in IRD and forami-
probably was similar to today’s, such that niferal concentrations, and changes in pet-
small amounts of tracer-poor ice from the
Labrador Sea reached both coring sites.
During the ice-rafting events, export of ice Radiocarbon age (103 years)
from the Labrador Sea may have increased, 12 8 4 0
but surface waters of the Greenland-Iceland 0
2
Interstadial number
3
4
YD Core splice
1
Ca
H1
DC1
a
20
b
c
2
H2
DC2
d
3
e
4
30 H3
f DC3
5 Counting error (4%) Counting error (4%)
0.40 0.20 -40 -36 30 20 10 0 2 1 0
Non–sea salt K δ18O (per mil) % hematite-stained grains (ash-free) 103 lithic grains/g
(kg km-2 year-1)
800 400 0 1.2 0.8 0.4 30 20 10 0 25 15 5
Ca (ppb) δ13C in C. % Icelandic glass lithic grains/g (expand. scale)
wuellerstorfi (per mil)
Fig. 6. Glacial-Holocene record of IRD, petrology, and d13C values in C. and Molfino (64). Hatched boxes give positions of layers rich in detrital
wuellerstorfi, placed on a calendar time scale and compared with GISP2 Ca, carbonate (DC). Interstadial numbers in ice core records are from (65). Ho-
d18O, and flux of non–sea salt K (5, 47). d13C values in C. wuellerstorfi are locene data are from VM 29-191; glacial data are from VM 23-81; the cores
from VM 29-191; IRD and petrology are from the composite VM 29-191 and are joined at the core splice at the midpoint of the Younger Dryas event.
VM 23-81 record, spliced as indicated. The calendar time scale for the Depletions in benthic d13C values associated with IRD events increase into
composite marine record was constructed as in (24); stars (at right) are ages the last glaciation, suggesting that the glacial amplification of the millennial-
for H2 and H3 used to extend the age model beyond the radiocarbon scale oscillator was linked to increasingly stronger decreases in NADW pro-
calibrations (see also Table 1). Calibration of the age of H3 is based on duction.
multiple criteria (24) and is ;4000 years younger than estimated by McIntyre
-36
atmospheric circulation (23).
-38 GISP2 ice core Using the procedure described in (27),
-40 we measured the pacing of the Holocene-
glacial climate shifts in the most consistent
-42 and robust component of the composite
6 Hematite-stained grains
record, the series of peaks in hematite-
GISP2 interstadial in δ18O
Event pacing
6 6 5
Calendar age (103 years)
2
0 4 15
glacial events are the same statistically, and
0 1 2 3 4 5 98
together the two series constitute a cyclic
GISP2 interstadial - stage 3 3 1800 20 signal centered on ;1470 6 532 years. The
97
4
2
signal persists across at least three major
3 Width of 25 climate transitions: the Younger Dryas–
2 pass 96
1 band filter
30
Holocene transition, the deglaciation, and
1
0 0 95 the boundary between marine isotope stages
0 1 2 3 4 5 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 -4 -2 0 2 4 2 and 3, which we have dated at ;30,000
Event time step (103 years) Frequency (cycles/103 years) % pass band years (Fig. 7A and Table 1). The implica-
filter values
tion of this finding is clear: The millennial-
Fig. 7. (A) Time series of pacings of Holocene-glacial events from VM 29-191 and VM 23-81 (F), scale variability in our records reflects the
compared with pacings of numbered interstadials in GISP2 d18O (h) and benthic d18O in VM 19-30 (66). presence of a pervasive, at least quasiperi-
Pacings were calculated as in (27 ). The pacings of the Dansgaard/Oeschger cycles were obtained by odic, climate cycle occurring independently
measuring the time steps between numbered interstadials and placing the value at the midpoints of the glacial-interglacial climate state.
between them. The time step to the Little Ice Age (E) is also shown for comparison with older event
Our composite record further suggests
pacings. Mean values of event pacings are from the composite record of hematite-stained grains in Fig.
6. The calibrated time scale for VM 19-30 is from (25). On the basis of radiocarbon ages and their that the Holocene and glacial event pacings
calibrations, the stage 2–stage 3 boundary is almost 6000 years older than given by SPECMAP tuning are nearly the same as those of the promi-
(67 ). (B) Histogram of Holocene-glacial IRD events and GISP2 interstadial events. (C) Multitaper spectral nent Dansgaard/Oeschger d18O shifts of the
analysis (7 tapers) of time series of hematite-stained grains. (D) Filtered record of time series of last glaciation, especially in marine isotope
hematite-stained grains. stage 3 where they are best developed (Fig.