Direct linking of Greenland and Antarctic ice cores at the Toba eruption (74 ka BP)Show others and affiliations
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2013 (English)In: Climate of the Past, ISSN 1814-9324, E-ISSN 1814-9332, Vol. 9Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The Toba eruption that occurred some 74 ka ago in Sumatra, Indonesia, is among the largest volcanic events on Earth over the last 2 million years. Tephra from this eruption has been spread over vast areas in Asia, where it constitutes a major time marker close to the Marine Isotope Stage 4/5 boundary. As yet, no tephra associated with Toba has been identified in Greenland or Antarctic ice cores. Based on new accurate dating of Toba tephra and on accurately dated European stalagmites, the Toba event is known to occur between the onsets of Greenland interstadials (GI) 19 and 20. Furthermore, the existing linking of Greenland and Antarctic ice cores by gas records and by the bipolar seesaw hypothesis suggests that the Antarctic counterpart is situated between Antarctic Isotope Maxima (AIM) 19 and 20. In this work we suggest a direct synchronization of Greenland (NGRIP) and Antarctic (EDML) ice cores at the Toba eruption based on matching of a pattern of bipolar volcanic spikes. Annual layer counting between volcanic spikes in both cores allows for a unique match. We first demonstrate this bipolar matching technique at the already synchronized Laschamp geomagnetic excursion (41 ka BP) before we apply it to the suggested Toba interval. The Toba synchronization pattern covers some 2000 yr in GI-20 and AIM19/20 and includes nine acidity peaks that are recognized in both ice cores. The suggested bipolar Toba synchronization has decadal precision. It thus allows a determination of the exact phasing of inter-hemispheric climate in a time interval of poorly constrained ice core records, and it allows for a discussion of the climatic impact of the Toba eruption in a global perspective. The bipolar linking gives no support for a long-term global cooling caused by the Toba eruption as Antarctica experiences a major warming shortly after the event. Furthermore, our bipolar match provides a way to place palaeo-environmental records other than ice cores into a precise climatic context.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2013. Vol. 9
Keywords [en]
last glacial period epica dome-c dronning maud land super-eruption millennial-scale climate-change northern-hemisphere bipolar seesaw electrical measurements late pleistocene Geology Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Research subject
SWEDARCTIC 1997, NordGRIP 1997; SWEDARCTIC 1998, NordGRIP 1998; SWEDARCTIC 1999, NordGRIP 1999; SWEDARCTIC 2000, NordGRIP 2000; SWEDARCTIC 2001, NordGRIP 2001; SWEDARCTIC 2002, NordGRIP 2002; SWEDARCTIC 2003, NordGRIP 2003; SWEDARCTIC 2004, NordGRIP 2004
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:polar:diva-1934DOI: 10.5194/cp-9-749-2013OAI: oai:DiVA.org:polar-1934DiVA, id: diva2:810344
Note
ISI Document Delivery No.: 118FQ Times Cited: 13 Cited Reference Count: 97 Svensson, A. Bigler, M. Blunier, T. Clausen, H. B. Dahl-Jensen, D. Fischer, H. Fujita, S. Goto-Azuma, K. Johnsen, S. J. Kawamura, K. Kipfstuhl, S. Kohno, M. Parrenin, F. Popp, T. Rasmussen, S. O. Schwander, J. Seierstad, I. Severi, M. Steffensen, J. P. Udisti, R. Uemura, R. Vallelonga, P. Vinther, B. M. Wegner, A. Wilhelms, F. Winstrup, M. Svensson, Anders/A-2643-2010; Rasmussen, Sune/B-5560-2008; Fischer, Hubertus/A-1211-2014; Parrenin, Frederic/H-3054-2014; Blunier, Thomas/M-4609-2014; Winstrup, Mai/M-5844-2014 Svensson, Anders/0000-0002-4364-6085; Rasmussen, Sune/0000-0002-4177-3611; Fischer, Hubertus/0000-0002-2787-4221; Parrenin, Frederic/0000-0002-9489-3991; Blunier, Thomas/0000-0002-6065-7747; Winstrup, Mai/0000-0002-4794-4004 Denmark (SNF); Belgium (FNRS-CFB); France (IFRTP); France (INSU/CNRS); Germany (AWI); Iceland (RannIs); Japan (MEXT); Sweden (SPRS); Switzerland (SNF); United States of America (NSF); EU This work is a contribution to the NGRIP ice core project, which is directed and organized by the Ice and Climate Research Group at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. It is being supported by funding agencies in Denmark (SNF), Belgium (FNRS-CFB), France (IFRTP and INSU/CNRS), Germany (AWI), Iceland (RannIs), Japan (MEXT), Sweden (SPRS), Switzerland (SNF) and the United States of America (NSF).This work is a contribution to the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), a joint European Science Foundation/European Commission scientific programme, funded by the EU and by national contributions from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The main logistic support was provided by IPEV and PNRA (at Dome C) and AWI (at Dronning Maud Land). This is EPICA publication no. 289. 14 Copernicus gesellschaft mbh Gottingen Geosciences, Multidisciplinary; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
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