A Pervasive Millennial-Scale Cycle in North Atlantic Holocene and Glacial Climates

Abstract

Evidence from North Atlantic deep sea cores reveals that abrupt shifts punctuated what is conventionally thought to have been a relatively stable Holocene climate. During each of these episodes, cool, ice-bearing waters from north of Iceland were advected as far south as the latitude of Britain. At about the same times, the atmospheric circulation above Greenland changed abruptly. Pacings of the Holocene events and of abrupt climate shifts during the last glaciation are statistically the same; together, they make up a series of climate shifts with a cyclicity close to 1470 ± 500 years. The Holocene events, therefore, appear to be the most recent manifestation of a pervasive millennial-scale climate cycle operating independently of the glacial-interglacial climate state. Amplification of the cycle during the last glaciation may have been linked to the North Atlantic's thermohaline circulation.

Cite this paper

Related papers

1. Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification2007
2. Trends, Rhythms, and Aberrations in Global Climate 65 Ma to Present2001
3. IntCal13 and Marine13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50,000 Years cal BP2010
4. Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth2001
5. The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP)2020