The EDC3 chronology for the EPICA Dome C ice core

Abstract. The EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) Dome C drilling in East Antarctica has now been completed to a depth of 3260 m, at only a few meters above bedrock. Here we present the new EDC3 chronology, which is based on the use of 1) a snow accumulation and mechanical flow model, and 2) a set of independent age markers along the core. These are obtained by pattern matching of recorded parameters to either absolutely dated paleoclimatic records, or to insolation variations. We show that this new time scale is in excellent agreement with the Dome Fuji and Vostok ice core time scales back to 100 kyr within 1 kyr. Discrepancies larger than 3 kyr arise during MIS 5.4, 5.5 and 6, which points to anomalies in either snow accumulation or mechanical flow during these time periods. We estimate that EDC3 gives accurate event durations within 20% (2σ) back to MIS11 and accurate absolute ages with a maximum uncertainty of 6 kyr back to 800 kyr.

[1]  T. Stocker,et al.  Atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the last glacial termination. , 2001, Science.

[2]  E. Wolff,et al.  Signal variability in replicate ice cores , 2005, Journal of Glaciology.

[3]  G. Raisbeck.  Absolute Dating of the Last 7000 Years of the Vostok Ice Core Using 10Be , 1998 .

[4]  M. Raymo,et al.  A Pliocene‐Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic δ18O records , 2005 .

[5]  Brook,et al.  Abrupt climate change at the end of the last glacial period inferred from trapped air in polar Ice , 1999, Science.

[6]  J. Jouzel,et al.  Homogeneous climate variability across East Antarctica over the past three glacial cycles , 2003, Nature.

[7]  B. Jicha,et al.  Paleomagnetic directions and 40Ar/39Ar ages from the Tatara‐San Pedro volcanic complex, Chilean Andes: Lava record of a Matuyama‐Brunhes precursor? , 2004 .

[8]  M. Schulz.  On the 1470‐year pacing of Dansgaard‐Oeschger warm events , 2002 .

[9]  R. L. Edwards,et al.  A High-Resolution Absolute-Dated Late Pleistocene Monsoon Record from Hulu Cave, China , 2001, Science.

[10]  H. Oerter,et al.  8 glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core , 2004 .

[11]  Kenji Kawamura,et al.  1-D-ice flow modelling at EPICA Dome C and Dome Fuji, East Antarctica , 2007 .

[12]  J. Overpeck,et al.  14C Activity and Global Carbon Cycle Changes over the Past 50,000 Years , 2004, Science.

[13]  Carlo Barbante,et al.  Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core , 2004, Nature.

[14]  J. Jouzel,et al.  A 150,000-year climatic record from Antarctic ice , 1985, Nature.

[15]  J. Jouzel,et al.  A tentative chronology for the EPICA Dome Concordia Ice Core , 2001 .

[16]  T. Stocker,et al.  Asynchrony of Antarctic and Greenland climate change during the last glacial period , 1998, Nature.

[17]  M. Bigler,et al.  The Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005, 15-42 ka. Part 2: comparison to other records , 2006 .

[18]  J. Jouzel,et al.  Beryllium 10 in the Greenland Ice Core Project ice core at Summit , 1997 .

[19]  G. Henderson.  Caving In to New Chronologies , 2006, Science.

[20]  Marie-Louise Siggaard-Andersen,et al.  The Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005, 15-42 ka. Part 1: constructing the time scale , 2006 .

[21]  J Schwander,et al.  High-resolution record of Northern Hemisphere climate extending into the last interglacial period , 2004, Nature.

[22]  Caitlin E. Buck,et al.  Intcal04 Terrestrial Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 0–26 Cal Kyr BP , 2004, Radiocarbon.

[23]  F. Parrenin,et al.  Change in ice rheology during climate variations – implications for ice flow modelling and dating of the EPICA Dome C core , 2007 .

[24]  W. Dansgaard,et al.  On Flow Model Dating of Stable Isotope Records from Greenland Ice Cores , 1992 .

[25]  N. Shackleton,et al.  The astronomical theory of climate and the age of the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic reversal , 1994 .

[26]  Silvia Becagli,et al.  Holocene volcanic history as recorded in the sulfate stratigraphy of the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C (EDC96) ice core , 2005 .

[27]  M. Bar-Matthews,et al.  Sea-land oxygen isotopic relationships from planktonic foraminifera and speleothems in the Eastern Mediterranean region and their implication for paleorainfall during interglacial intervals , 2003 .

[28]  C. Ritz,et al.  Modeling the densification of polar firn including heat diffusion: Application to close‐off characteristics and gas isotopic fractionation for Antarctica and Greenland sites , 2003 .

[29]  Jacques Laskar,et al.  The chaotic motion of the solar system: A numerical estimate of the size of the chaotic zones , 1990 .

[30]  G. Henderson,et al.  Evidence from U–Th dating against Northern Hemisphere forcing of the penultimate deglaciation , 2000, Nature.

[31]  H. Oerter,et al.  Spatio-temporal variability in volcanic sulphate deposition over the past 2 kyr in snow pits and firn cores from Amundsenisen, Antarctica , 2004, Journal of Glaciology.

[32]  R. Röthlisberger,et al.  Southern Ocean sea-ice extent, productivity and iron flux over the past eight glacial cycles , 2006 .

[33]  F. Parrenin,et al.  Change of the ice rheology with climatic transitions - implication on ice flow modelling and dating of the EPICA Dome C core , 2006 .

[34]  Dorthe Dahl-Jensen,et al.  Oxygen isotope and palaeotemperature records from six Greenland ice‐core stations: Camp Century, Dye‐3, GRIP, GISP2, Renland and NorthGRIP , 2001 .

[35]  H. Fischer,et al.  Synchronisation of the EDML and EDC ice cores for the last 52 kyr by volcanic signature matching , 2007 .

[36]  W. Dansgaard,et al.  Oxygen Isotope Profiles through the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets , 1972, Nature.

[37]  M. Loutre,et al.  The local insolation signature of air content in Antarctic ice. A new step toward an absolute dating of ice records , 2007 .

[38]  J. D. Hays,et al.  Age Dating and the Orbital Theory of the Ice Ages: Development of a High-Resolution 0 to 300,000-Year Chronostratigraphy , 1987, Quaternary Research.

[39]  M. Tiepolo,et al.  A volcanic marker (92 ka) for dating deep east Antarctic ice cores , 2006 .

[40]  T. Stocker,et al.  Stable Carbon Cycle–Climate Relationship During the Late Pleistocene , 2005, Science.

[41]  Kendrick C. Taylor,et al.  Visual‐stratigraphic dating of the GISP2 ice core: Basis, reproducibility, and application , 1997 .

[42]  J. Jouzel,et al.  A new 27 ky high resolution East Antarctic climate record , 2001 .

[43]  J. Jouzel,et al.  Precise dating of Dansgaard–Oeschger climate oscillations in western Europe from stalagmite data , 2003, Nature.

[44]  Epica Community Members.  One-to-one coupling of glacial climate variability in Greenland and Antarctica , 2006, Nature.

[45]  C. Barbante,et al.  Southern Ocean sea-ice extent, productivity and iron flux over the past eight glacial cycles , 2006, Nature.

[46]  F. Pattyn,et al.  Historical droughts in Mediterranean regions during the last 500 years: a data/model approach , 2006 .

[47]  Marie-Louise Siggaard-Andersen,et al.  A synchronized dating of three Greenland ice cores throughout the Holocene , 2006 .

[48]  J. Jouzel,et al.  The two-step shape and timing of the last deglaciation in Antarctica , 1995 .

[49]  J. Jouzel,et al.  New modeling of the Vostok ice flow line and implication for the glaciological chronology of the Vostok ice core , 2004 .

[50]  J. Jouzel,et al.  Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica , 1999, Nature.

[51]  J. Jouzel,et al.  Anomalous flow below 2700 m in the EPICA Dome C ice core detected using δ 18 O of atmospheric oxygen measurements , 2007 .

[52]  Kenji Kawamura,et al.  Northern Hemisphere forcing of climatic cycles in Antarctica over the past 360,000 years , 2007, Nature.

[53]  C. Laj,et al.  On the age of the Laschamp geomagnetic excursion , 2004 .

[54]  J. D. Hays,et al.  The orbital theory of Pleistocene climate : Support from a revised chronology of the marine δ^ O record. , 1984 .

[55]  T. Herbert,et al.  Astronomical calibration of the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary: Consequences for magnetic remanence acquisition in marine carbonates and the Asian loess sequences , 1996 .

[56]  Electrical conductivity method (ECM) stratigraphic dating of the Byrd Station ice core, Antarctica , 1994, Annals of Glaciology.

[57]  Xixi Zhao,et al.  Matuyama-Brunhes reversal and Kamikatsura event on Maui: paleomagnetic directions, 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages and implications , 2004 .

[58]  T. Stocker,et al.  Direct north-south synchronization of abrupt climate change record in ice cores using Beryllium 10 , 2007 .

[59]  J. Lowe,et al.  An event stratigraphy for the Last Termination in the North Atlantic region based on the Greenland ice-core record: a proposal by the INTIMATE group , 1998 .

[60]  J. Barnola,et al.  New constraints on the gas age-ice age difference along the EPICA ice cores, 0-50 kyr , 2007 .

[61]  V. Masson‐Delmotte,et al.  Spatial and temporal variability in isotope composition of recent snow in the vicinity of Vostok station, Antarctica: implications for ice-core record interpretation , 2002, Annals of Glaciology.

[62]  H. Oerter,et al.  EDML1: a chronology for the EPICA deep ice core from Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, over the last 150 000 years , 2007 .

[63]  C. Waelbroeck,et al.  A comparison of the Vostok ice deuterium record and series from Southern Ocean core MD 88-770 over the last two glacial-interglacial cycles , 1995 .

[64]  W. Dansgaard,et al.  A Flow Model and a Time Scale for the Ice Core from Camp Century, Greenland , 1969 .

[65]  T. Guilderson,et al.  Radiocarbon calibration curve spanning 0 to 50,000 years BP based on paired 230 Th/ 234 U/ 238 U and 14 C dates on pristine corals , 2005 .

[66]  C. Buck,et al.  Marine04 Marine Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 0–26 Cal Kyr Bp , 2004, Radiocarbon.

[67]  B. Delmonte,et al.  Characteristics and sources of tephra layers in the EPICA-Dome C ice record (East Antarctica): Implications for past atmospheric circulation and ice core stratigraphic correlations , 2005 .

[68]  M. Bender.  Orbital tuning chronology for the Vostok climate record supported by trapped gas composition , 2002 .

[69]  T. Stocker,et al.  Atmospheric Methane and Nitrous Oxide of the Late Pleistocene from Antarctic Ice Cores , 2005, Science.

[70]  Marie-Louise Siggaard-Andersen,et al.  A new Greenland ice core chronology for the last glacial termination , 2006 .

[71]  P. Mayewski,et al.  Climate correlations between Greenland and Antarctica during the past 100,000 years , 1994, Nature.

[72]  R. Edwards,et al.  Timing, Duration, and Transitions of the Last Interglacial Asian Monsoon , 2004, Science.

[73]  J. Jouzel,et al.  Stratigraphic correlations between the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) Dome C and Vostok ice cores showing the relative variations of snow accumulation over the past 45 kyr , 2004 .

[74]  J. Jouzel,et al.  10Be evidence for the Matuyama–Brunhes geomagnetic reversal in the EPICA Dome C ice core , 2006, Nature.

[75]  N. Shackleton,et al.  The 100,000-year ice-Age cycle identified and found to lag temperature, carbon dioxide, and orbital eccentricity , 2000, Science.