Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core

Dahl-Jensen, D.; Albert, M. R.; Aldahan, A.; Azuma, N.; Balslev-Clausen, D.; Baumgartner, M.; Berggren, A. -M.; Bigler, M.; Binder, T.; Blunier, T.; Bourgeois, J. C.; Brook, E. J.; Buchardt, S. L.; Buizert, C.; Capron, E.; Chappellaz, J.; Chung, J.; Clausen, H. B.; Cvijanovic, I.; Davies, S. M.; Ditlevsen, P.; Eicher, O.; Fischer, H.; Fisher, D. A.; Fleet, L. G.; Gfeller, G.; Gkinis, V.; Gogineni, S.; Goto-Azuma, K.; Grinsted, A.; Gudlaugsdottir, H.; Guillevic, M.; Hansen, S. B.; Hansson, M.; Hirabayashi, M.; Hong, S.; Hur, S. D.; Huybrechts, P.; Hvidberg, C. S.; Iizuka, Y.; Jenk, T.; Johnsen, S. J.; Jones, T. R.; Jouzel, J.; Karlsson, N. B.; Kawamura, K.; Keegan, K.; Kettner, E.; Kipfstuhl, S.; Kjaer, H. A.; Koutnik, M.; Kuramoto, T.; Kohler, P.; Laepple, T.; Landais, A.; Langen, P. L.; Larsen, L. B.; Leuenberger, D.; Leuenberger, M.; Leuschen, C.; Li, J.; Lipenkov, V.; Martinerie, P.; Maselli, O. J.; Masson-Delmotte, V.; Mcconnell, J. R.; Miller, H.; Mini, O.; Miyamoto, A.; Montagnat-Rentier, M.; Mulvaney, R.; Muscheler, R.; Orsi, A. J.; Paden, J.; Panton, C.; Pattyn, F.; Petit, J. -R.; Pol, K.; Popp, T.; Possnert, G.; Prie, F.; Prokopiou, M.; Quiquet, A.; Rasmussen, S. O.; Raynaud, D.; Ren, J.; Reutenauer, C.; Ritz, C.; Rockmann, T.; Rosen, J. L.; Rubino, M.; Rybak, O.; Samyn, D.; Sapart, C. J.; Schilt, A.; Schmidt, A. M. Z.; Schwander, J.; Schupbach, S.; Seierstad, I.; Severinghaus, J. P.; Sheldon, S.; Simonsen, S. B.; Sjolte, J.; Solgaard, A. M.; Sowers, T.; Sperlich, P.; Steen-Larsen, H. C.; Steffen, K.; Steffensen, J. P.; Steinhage, D.; Stocker, T. F.; Stowasser, C.; Sturevik, A. S.; Sturges, W. T.; Sveinbjornsdottir, A.; Svensson, A.; Tison, J. -L.; Uetake, J.; Vallelonga, P.; Van De Wal, R. S. W.; Van Der Wel, G.; Vaughn, B. H.; Vinther, B.; Waddington, E.; Wegner, A.; Weikusat, I.; White, J. W. C.; Wilhelms, F.; Winstrup, M.; Witrant, E.; Wolff, E. W.; Xiao, C.; Zheng, J.

doi:10.1038/nature11789

Efforts to extract a Greenland ice core with a complete record of the Eemian interglacial (130,000 to 115,000 years ago) have until now been unsuccessful. The response of the Greenland ice sheet to the warmer-than-present climate of the Eemian has thus remained unclear. Here we present the new North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling ('NEEM') ice core and show only a modest ice-sheet response to the strong warming in the early Eemian. We reconstructed the Eemian record from folded ice using globally homogeneous parameters known from dated Greenland and Antarctic ice-core records. On the basis of water stable isotopes, NEEM surface temperatures after the onset of the Eemian (126,000 years ago) peaked at 8 ± 4 degrees Celsius above the mean of the past millennium, followed by a gradual cooling that was probably driven by the decreasing summer insolation. Between 128,000 and 122,000 years ago, the thickness of the northwest Greenland ice sheet decreased by 400 ± 250 metres, reaching surface elevations 122,000 years ago of 130 ± 300 metres lower than the present. Extensive surface melt occurred at the NEEM site during the Eemian, a phenomenon witnessed when melt layers formed again at NEEM during the exceptional heat of July 2012. With additional warming, surface melt might become more common in the future. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.