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Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core

Nature volume 429, pages 623–628 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

The Antarctic Vostok ice core provided compelling evidence of the nature of climate, and of climate feedbacks, over the past 420,000 years. Marine records suggest that the amplitude of climate variability was smaller before that time, but such records are often poorly resolved. Moreover, it is not possible to infer the abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from marine records. Here we report the recovery of a deep ice core from Dome C, Antarctica, that provides a climate record for the past 740,000 years. For the four most recent glacial cycles, the data agree well with the record from Vostok. The earlier period, between 740,000 and 430,000 years ago, was characterized by less pronounced warmth in interglacial periods in Antarctica, but a higher proportion of each cycle was spent in the warm mode. The transition from glacial to interglacial conditions about 430,000 years ago (Termination V) resembles the transition into the present interglacial period in terms of the magnitude of change in temperatures and greenhouse gases, but there are significant differences in the patterns of change. The interglacial stage following Termination V was exceptionally long—28,000 years compared to, for example, the 12,000 years recorded so far in the present interglacial period. Given the similarities between this earlier warm period and today, our results may imply that without human intervention, a climate similar to the present one would extend well into the future.

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Figure 1: Measured parameters from the EPICA Dome C ice core, on an ice depth scale.
Figure 2: Comparison of EPICA Dome C data with other palaeoclimatic records.
Figure 3: Termination V in the EPICA Dome C ice core on an ice depth scale.
Figure 4: Histogram of δD values before and after 430 kyr.
Figure 5: Comparison of Termination V plus MIS 11 with Termination I plus Holocene. δD data for MIS 11 (1-kyr averages) are shown as a solid blue line using the lower x axis; data for the Holocene are shown as a dashed red line using the upper x axis.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the logistics and drilling teams. This work is a contribution to the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), a joint European Science Foundation/European Commission (EC) scientific programme, funded by the EC and by national contributions from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to E.W. ([email protected]).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Mario Zucchelli: (Deceased) ENEA, CRE Casaccia, PO Box 2400, Via Anguillarese 301, 00060 S. Maria di Galleria (RM), Italy.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (CNRS), BP 96, 38402, St Martin d'Hères Cedex, France

    Laurent Augustin, Jean Marc Barnola, Jerome Chappellaz, Barbara Delmonte, Gael Durand, Frederic Parrenin, Jean-Robert Petit, Dominique Raynaud, Catherine Ritz & Jerome Weiss

  2. Environmental Sciences Department, University of Venice, Calle Larga S. Marta, 2137, I-30123, Venice, Italy

    Carlo Barbante

  3. British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, CB3 0ET, Cambridge, UK

    Piers R. F. Barnes, Geneviève C. Littot, Robert Mulvaney, David A. Peel & Eric W. Wolff

  4. Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Matthias Bigler, Jacqueline Flückiger, Patrik Kaufmann, Fabrice Lambert, Jakob Schwander, Urs Siegenthaler, Bernhard Stauffer & Thomas F. Stocker

  5. Department of Chemistry—Analytical Chemistry Section, Scientific Pole—University of Florence, Via della Lastruccia 3, 50019, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy

    Emiliano Castellano & Roberto Udisti

  6. Institut Pierre Simon Laplace/Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR CEA-CNRS 1572, CE Saclay, Orme des Merisiers, 91191, Gif-Sur-Yvette, France

    Olivier Cattani, Gabrielle Dreyfus, Sonia Falourd, Jean Jouzel, Valerie Masson-Delmotte & Frederic Parrenin

  7. Niels Bohr Institute for Astronomy, Physics and Geophysics, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Sigfus J. Johnsen & Jorgen Peder Steffensen

  8. Dipartimento di Scienze Ambiente e Territorio, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, I-20126, Milan, Italy

    Barbara Delmonte, Valter Maggi & Giuseppe Orombelli

  9. Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar- und Marine Research (AWI), Postfach 120161, D-27515, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Hubertus Fischer, Philippe Huybrechts, Josef Kipfstuhl, Heinz Miller, Hans Oerter, Urs Ruth & Frank Wilhelms

  10. Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, S-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

    Margareta E. Hansson

  11. Institut Polaire Français–Paul Emile Victor (IPEV), BP 75, 29280, Plouzane, France

    Gérard Jugie

  12. Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, 38 Beringa Street, 199397, St Petersburg, Russia

    Vladimir Y. Lipenkov

  13. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 157/A, I-43100, Parma, Italy

    Antonio Longinelli

  14. Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement, Faculté des Sciences, CP 160/03, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 avenue FD Roosevelt, B1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Reginald Lorrain & Roland Souchez

  15. Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU), Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Johannes Oerlemans, Roderik S. W. van de Wal & Michiel van den Broeke

  16. Department of Geological, Environmental and Marine Sciences, University of Trieste, Via E. Weiss 2, I-34127, Trieste, Italy

    Barbara Stenni

  17. Earth Science Department, University of Milan, Via Cicognara 7, 20129, Milano, Italy

    Ignazio E. Tabacco

  18. Norwegian Polar Institute, N-9296, Tromsø, Norway

    Jan-Gunnar Winther

Consortia

EPICA community members

  • EPICA community members (participants are listed alphabetically)

    • Laurent Augustin
    • , Carlo Barbante
    • , Piers R. F. Barnes
    • , Jean Marc Barnola
    • , Matthias Bigler
    • , Emiliano Castellano
    • , Olivier Cattani
    • , Jerome Chappellaz
    • , Dorthe Dahl-Jensen
    • , Barbara Delmonte
    • , Gabrielle Dreyfus
    • , Gael Durand
    • , Sonia Falourd
    • , Hubertus Fischer
    • , Jacqueline Flückiger
    • , Margareta E. Hansson
    • , Philippe Huybrechts
    • , Gérard Jugie
    • , Sigfus J. Johnsen
    • , Jean Jouzel
    • , Patrik Kaufmann
    • , Josef Kipfstuhl
    • , Fabrice Lambert
    • , Vladimir Y. Lipenkov
    • , Geneviève C. Littot
    • , Antonio Longinelli
    • , Reginald Lorrain
    • , Valter Maggi
    • , Valerie Masson-Delmotte
    • , Heinz Miller
    • , Robert Mulvaney
    • , Johannes Oerlemans
    • , Hans Oerter
    • , Giuseppe Orombelli
    • , Frederic Parrenin
    • , David A. Peel
    • , Jean-Robert Petit
    • , Dominique Raynaud
    • , Catherine Ritz
    • , Urs Ruth
    • , Jakob Schwander
    • , Urs Siegenthaler
    • , Roland Souchez
    • , Bernhard Stauffer
    • , Jorgen Peder Steffensen
    • , Barbara Stenni
    • , Thomas F. Stocker
    • , Ignazio E. Tabacco
    • , Roberto Udisti
    • , Roderik S. W. van de Wal
    • , Michiel van den Broeke
    • , Jerome Weiss
    • , Frank Wilhelms
    • , Jan-Gunnar Winther
    • , Eric W. Wolff
    •  & Mario Zucchelli

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Methods

Gives the full detail of the derivation of the EDC2 timescale used in the paper. (DOC 47 kb)

Supplementary Figure 1

Map showing the EPICA drilling sites along with the location of the previous deep Antarctic ice cores covering several glacial cycles. The grey areas are floating ice shelves. (PDF 48 kb)

Supplementary Data 1a

This gives δD data against depth, as shown in Figure 1a of the main paper. Ages are also given, showing the age-depth relationship used. (XLS 67 kb)

Supplementary Data 1b

This gives grain radius against depth, as shown in Figure 1b of the main paper. (XLS 29 kb)

Supplementary Data 1c

This gives dust mass against depth, as shown in Figure 1c of the main paper. (XLS 55 kb)

Supplementary Data 1d

This gives electrical data against depth, as shown in Fig 1d of the main paper. (XLS 235 kb)

Supplementary Data 2b

This gives 3 kyr average δD values against age for the EDC core, as shown in Figure 2b of the main paper. (XLS 23 kb)

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EPICA community members. Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core. Nature 429, 623–628 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02599

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