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| ABRUPT INCREASE IN GREENLAND SNOW ACCUMULATION AT THE END OF THE YOUNGER DRYAS EVENT |
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| Author(s): ALLEY RB, MEESE DA, SHUMAN CA, GOW AJ, TAYLOR KC, GROOTES PM, WHITE JWC, RAM M, WADDINGTON ED, MAYEWSKI PA, ZIELINSKI GA |
| Source: NATURE Volume: 362 Issue: 6420 Pages: 527-529 Published: APR 8 1993 |
| Times Cited: 589 References: 27 |
| Abstract: THE warming at the end of the last glaciation was characterized by a series of abrupt returns to glacial climate, the best-known of which is the Younger Dryas event1. Despite much study of the causes of this event and the mechanisms by which it ended, many questions remain unresolved1. Oxygen isotope data from Greenland ice cores2-4 suggest that the Younger Dryas ended abruptly, over a period of about 50 years; dust concentrations2,4 in these cores show an even more rapid transition (less-than-or-similar-to 20 years). This extremely short timescale places severe constraints on the mechanisms underlying the transition. But dust concentrations can reflect subtle changes in atmospheric circulation, which need not be associated with a large change in climate. Here we present results from a new Greenland ice core (GISP2) showing that snow accumulation doubled rapidly from the Younger Dryas event to the subsequent Preboreal interval, possibly in one to three years. We also find that the accumulation-rate change from the Oldest Dryas to the Bolling/Allerod warm period was large and abrupt. The extreme rapidity of these changes in a variable that directly represents regional climate implies that the events at the end of the last glaciation may have been responses to some kind of threshold or trigger in the North Atlantic climate system. |
| Document Type: Article |
| Language: English |
| Reprint Address: ALLEY, RB (reprint author), PENN STATE UNIV, CTR EARTH SYST SCI, UNIV PK, PA 16802 USA |
Addresses:
1. PENN STATE UNIV, DEPT GEOSCI, UNIV PK, PA 16802 USA
2. USA, COLD REG RES & ENGN LAB, SNOW & ICE BRANCH, HANOVER, NH 03755 USA
3. UNIV NEVADA, DESERT RES INST, RENO, NV 89506 USA
4. UNIV WASHINGTON, QUATERNARY ISOTOPE LAB, SEATTLE, WA 98195 USA
5. UNIV COLORADO, INST ARCTIC & ALPINE RES, BOULDER, CO 80309 USA
6. UNIV BUFFALO, DEPT PHYS, AMHERST, NY 14260 USA
7. UNIV WASHINGTON, GEOPHYS PROGRAM, SEATTLE, WA 98195 USA
8. UNIV NEW HAMPSHIRE, INST STUDY EARTH OCEANS & SPACE, GLACIER RES GRP, DURHAM, NH 03824 USA |
| Publisher: MACMILLAN MAGAZINES LTD, PORTERS SOUTH, 4 CRINAN ST, LONDON, ENGLAND N1 9XW |
| Subject Category: Multidisciplinary Sciences |
| IDS Number: KW453 |
| ISSN: 0028-0836 |
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| | | | | | | | | Record from Web of Science® | | | | | | | | | |