The Southern Hemisphere at glacial terminations: insights from the Dome C ice core

The many different proxy records from the Euro- pean Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) Dome C ice core allow for the first time a comparison of nine glacial terminations in great detail. Despite the fact that all termi- nations cover the transition from a glacial maximum into an interglacial, there are large differences between single ter- minations. For some terminations, Antarctic temperature in- creased only moderately, while for others, the amplitude of change at the termination was much larger. For the different terminations, the rate of change in temperature is more simi- lar than the magnitude or duration of change. These temper- ature changes were accompanied by vast changes in dust and sea salt deposition all over Antarctica. Here we investigate the phasing between a South Ameri- can dust proxy (non-sea-salt calcium flux, nssCa 2+ ), a sea ice proxy (sea salt sodium flux, ssNa + ) and a proxy for Antarc- tic temperature (deuterium, D). In particular, we look into whether a similar sequence of events applies to all termina- tions, despite their different characteristics. All proxies are derived from the EPICA Dome C ice core, resulting in a relative dating uncertainty between the proxies of less than 20 years. At the start of the terminations, the temperature ( D) in- crease and dust (nssCa 2+ flux) decrease start synchronously. The sea ice proxy (ssNa + flux), however, only changes once

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