10 be in ice at vostok antarctica during the last climatic cycle we have previously reported accelerator mass spectrometer measurements of the cosmogenic isotope 10be half life 1 5 myr in an 906 m ice core recovered at dome c antarctica1 in addition to an enhanced concentration during a period of reduced solar activity maunder minimum ad 1645 1715 2 we found substantially increased concentrations during that part of the core corresponding to the last ice age both effects have been confirmed and extended in greenland ice cores3 4 the recovery of a 2 083 m ice core at vostok antarctica5 together with an extended oxygen isotope chronology reported elsewhere in this issue6 permits an extension of 10be studies over the whole of the last climatic cycle 125 kyr we report here such measurements which show an excellent correlation with the oxygen isotope and thus presumably climate record over the whole of this period the results imply that precipitation rates in the antarctic during the last interglacial were similar to those of the holocene but were roughly halved during the last glaciation

sensitivity and response of beryllium 10 in marine sediments to rapid production changes geomagnetic events a box model study the response and the sensitivity of the marine beryllium 10 flux to abrupt production changes e g caused by a geomagnetic event are investigated by using a simple box model the effect of mixing processes in the water column on the 10be flux is simulated and the influence of bioturbation on the sedimentary record is studied while the effect of the oceanic residence time is found to be small bioturbation can drastically change the shape and the amplitude of the modeled 10be peak the simulations indicate that 10be production peaks persisting for more than 1500 years are recorded well in deep sea sediments if bioturbation induced integration times are small tbio 1000 years while sediment cores with tbio 1000 years are found to be not well suited for stratigraphic purposes the results further show that the sedimentary 10be peak lags initial signal this time lag is almost independent of the event duration for tbio 1000 years ranging between about 400 and 600 years therefore the model results support the idea that marine 10be peaks corresponding to geomagnetic events can be used as a global time marker to match marine terrestrial and ice core chronologies on the millennial and if the time lag of 500 100 years is considered the submillennial timescale

a pseudo thellier relative palaeointensity record and rock magnetic and geochemical parameters in relation to climate during the last 276 kyr in the azores region summary in the pseudo thellier method for relative palaeointensity determinations tauxe et al 1995 the slope of the nrm intensity left after af demagnetization versus arm intensity gained at the same peak field is used as a palaeointensity measure we tested this method on a marine core from the azores spanning the last 276 kyr we compared the pseudo thellier palaeointensity record with the conventional record obtained earlier by lehman et al 1996 who normalized nrm by sirm the two records show similar features intensity lows with deviating palaeomagnetic directions at 40 45 ka and at 180 190 ka the first interval is associated with the laschamps excursion while the 180 190 ka low represents the iceland basin excursion channell et al 1997 the pseudo thellier method in combination with a jackknife resampling scheme provides error estimates on the palaeointensity spectral analysis of the rock magnetic parameters and the palaeointensity estimates shows orbitally forced periods particularly 23 kyr for climatic precession this suggests that palaeointensity is still slightly contaminated by climate fuzzy c means cluster analysis of rock magnetic and geochemical parameters yields a seven cluster model of predominantly calcareous clusters and detrital clusters the clusters show a strong correlation with climate for example samples from detrital clusters predominantly appear during rapid warming although both the pseudo thellier palaeointensity m a and fuzzy clusters show climatic influences we have not been able to find an unambiguous connection between the clusters and m a

chlorine 36 fallout in the summit greenland ice core project ice core the natural cosmogenic radioisotope 36cl has been measured in the greenland ice core project ice core from summit greenland generally a good correlation between 36cl and 18o was found even in glacial periods with strong 18o oscillations the 36cl flux is calculated assuming an exponential relationship between accumulation rate and 18o a prominent excursion is detected between 35 and 40 kyr b p which coincides with a similar 10be peak measured in the same samples this sheds light on possible causes of this excursion in the lowest part of the ice core the flux decreases smoothly this can be interpreted as radioactive decay of 36cl t1 2 300 kyr

δ15n of n2 in air trapped in polar ice a tracer of gas transport in the firn and a possible constraint on ice age gas age differences with respect to gas transport the fim near the surface of an ice sheet can be divided into three zones the uppermost is a convective zone located just below the surface of the ice sheet in which the air is rapidly flushed by convective exchange with the overlying atmosphere below the convective zone there is a diffusive air column in which diffusion is rapid but there is no convection between the bottom of the diffusive air column and the bubble close off region there may be a nondiffusive zone in which diffusion is so slow that negligible gas transport occurs the diffusive air column is characterized by progressive enrichment with depth of 15n in n2 and heavy isotopes of gases in general as predicted using the barometric equation in this paper we present data on the 15n of n2 in recently trapped air samples from 12 ice cores along with numerous downcore samples from byrd vostok and dome c bubble close off depths for these cores calculated from a densification model ranged from 51 to 114 meters below the surface mbs we used these data and the barometric equation to calculate the thickness of the diffusive air column and found that it comprised 46 to 93 of the total firn thickness at our study sites paleo close off depths calculated from the densification model for glacial sections of byrd vostok and dome c are 15 25 m deeper than close off depths today diffusive column heights calculated from 15n varied in a more complex manner the diffusive column height at byrd appears to have decreased from 74 m during the last glacial period to 50 m during the holocene at vostok and dome c the diffusive column height calculated from 15n increase from about 65 m during the last glacial period to about 80 m in the holocene we use records of surface temperature and co2 at byrd and vostok along with their respective chronologies to constrain the ice age gas age difference age throughout the section of the vostok ice core corresponding to the last glacial termination in principle age values calculated from these data can be used to discriminate whether gas in the fim mixes to the bubble close off depth or to a depth equivalent to the diffusive column height in practice however uncertainties in the chronology of byrd and vostok are too great to allow us to distinguish between these two possibilities one can only say that at the time of the last termination age for vostok was between 3 and 10 5 kyr previous estimates fall within this range

evidence for an increase in cosmogenic 10be during a geomagnetic reversal reversals in the geomagnetic field which occur every few hundred thousand years represent a dramatic change in the earth s environment although there is no satisfactory theory for such reversals it is generally accepted that the dipole field intensity decreases to 20 of its normal value for a few thousand years during the change in direction1 because the galactic and solar cosmic rays which impinge on the earth s atmosphere are charged a significant fraction about half of them are deflected by the geomagnetic field2 at the time of a reversal this magnetic shielding is greatly reduced and it has been suggested that the increased flux of high energy particles could have effects on evolutionary3 or climatic4 processes for example the statistically significant coincidence in levels of some marine faunal extinctions and reversal boundaries in ocean sediments5 could be caused directly or indirectly by the decreased geomagnetic intensity during the reversal we report here evidence in marine sediments for an increase in cosmogenic 10be production in the earth s atmosphere during the brunhes matuyama reversal 730 000 yr ago in addition to confirming an increase in cosmogenic isotope production the results provide information on the magnitude and duration of the geomagnetic intensity decrease during such an event and the depth at which rmanent magnetism is acquired in marine sediments

deep crustal structure of an arc continent collision constraints from seismic traveltimes in central taiwan and the philippine sea the collision of continental crust of the eurasian plate with the overriding luzon arc in central taiwan has led to compression uplift and exhumation of rocks that were originally part of the chinese rifted margin though the kinematics of the fold thrust belt on the west side of the orogen has been described in detail the style of deformation in the lower crust beneath taiwan is still not well understood in addition the fate of the luzon arc and forearc in the collision is also not clear compressional wave arrival times from active source and earthquake seismic data from the taiwan integrated geodynamic research program constrain the seismic velocity structure of the lithosphere along transect t5 an east west corridor in central taiwan the results of our analysis indicate that the continental crust of the eurasian margin forms a broad crustal root beneath central taiwan possibly with a thickness of 55 km compressional seismic velocities beneath the central range of taiwan are as low as 5 5 km s at 25 km depth whereas p wave seismic velocities in the middle crust on the eastern flank of the taiwan mountain belt average 6 5 7 0 km s this suggests that the incoming sediments and upper crust of the eurasian plate are buried to midcrustal depth in the western flank of the orogen before they are exhumed in the central range to the east the luzon arc and forearc are deformed beneath the coastal range of central taiwan fragments of the rifted margin of the south china sea that were accreted in the early stages of the collision form a new backstop that controls the exhumation of eurasian strata to the west in this evolving mountain belt

40ar 39ar dating of latest pleistocene 41 ka marine tephra in the mediterranean sea implications for global climate records abstract fifty one 40 ar 39 ar laser heating analyses of sanidine crystals in the c 13 tephra layer recovered out of a piston core raised from 3000 m depth in the tyrrhenian sea yielded apparent ages between 25 and 112 ka twenty four of these measurements define an age probability maximum and generate an isochron of 41 1 2 1 ka 2 with a 40 ar 36 ar intercept of 288 21 that is indistinguishable from the modern atmosphere however the entire population is skewed toward older apparent ages with smaller peaks at 48 ka 55 ka 67 ka and 110 ka the composition of glass shards in the c 13 tephra overlaps that of the sio 2 rich phase of the 150 km 3 campanian ignimbrite which erupted from the campi flegrei caldera 130 km northwest of the core site although the 41 1 2 1 ka isochron is 15 older than k ar and 14 c ages for the campanian ignimbrite it is indistinguishable from recent 40 ar 39 ar age determinations the campanian ignimbrite eruptions were also chemically similar to and correlated with the y 5 ash layer the most voluminous and widely dispersed late pleistocene tephra in the mediterranean region the age of the y 5 layer was constrained originally at 38 0 2 5 ka on the basis of astronomical dating of o isotope stages the 40 ar 39 ar ages astronomical dating plus chemical similarities permit correlation of the c 13 tephra layer with both the campanian ignimbrite and the y 5 tephra layer the older ages preserved in the c 13 tephra layer may reflect xenocrysts incorporated during the explosive eruption accompanying collapse of the campi flegrei caldera 41 ka the c 13 tephra layer is correlated with a 10 be peak in an adjacent marine core o isotope stage 3 12 and immediately preceded a cooling episode corresponding to heinrich event 4 thus the age of these features is constrained by radioisotope dating the 41 ka peak in 10 be deposition is a global phenomenon whose age matches that of the laschamp geomagnetic excursion thus our results provide a new tie point among several polar ice core and marine proxy records of paleoclimate during the past 50 kyr precise age information independent of radiocarbon dating can be recovered from latest pleistocene marine tephra using the 40 ar 39 ar laser heating method despite the presence of multiple components that may have been incorporated during or after its deposition

geomagnetic paleointensity for the last 100 kyr from the sub antarctic south atlantic a tool for inter hemispheric correlation abstract we report relative paleointensity proxy records from four piston cores collected near the agulhas ridge and meteor rise south atlantic the mean sedimentation rate of the cores varies from 24 cm kyr to 11 cm kyr the two cores with mean sedimentation rates over 20 cm kyr record positive remanence inclinations at 40 41 ka coeval with the laschamp event age models are based on oxygen isotope data from three of the cores augmented by radiocarbon ages from nearby core rc11 83 and by correlation of paleointensity records for the one core with no oxygen isotope data the relative paleointensity proxy records are the first from the south atlantic and from the high to mid latitude southern hemisphere prominent paleointensity lows at 40 ka and 65 ka as well as many other features can be correlated to paleointensity records of comparable resolution from the northern hemisphere the records are attributable in large part to the global scale field and therefore have potential for inter hemispheric correlation at a resolution difficult to achieve with isotope data alone

highly resolved beryllium 10 record from odp site 1089 a global signal abstract in this study a highly resolved beryllium 10 record from a rapidly accumulating sediment core located in the southern cape basin odp leg 177 site 1089 is presented to extract the global 10 be production signal from the sedimentary record a dedicated correction procedure is applied first sediment redistribution is quantified by applying thorium 230 normalization then lateral transport of 10 be and 230 th is assessed using simple box model calculations the model results indicate that only minor transport corrections have to be applied thus site 1089 combines the advantage of good time resolution with nearly negligible oceanic transport of 10 be leading to a favored site for the reconstruction of global 10 be production changes from marine sediments our results suggest that the transport corrected 10 be record at site 1089 reflects long term variations of the global 10 be production rate over the past 300 kyr the absolute values of the youngest holocene samples are in good agreement with the estimated recent long term averaged global 10 be production rate deduced from observations the variability of the 10 be flux over the past 300 kyr corresponds well to the expected range deduced from model calculations the comparison with other reconstructions of geomagnetic paleointensity and with records of cosmogenic nuclides further emphasizes the global character of this 10 be record therefore our results show that it is possible to quantitatively extract the global 10 be production rate from a single marine record if transport processes are corrected for since the error of a single reconstruction is large a combination of several highly resolved and transport corrected 10 be records may lead to a significantly improved reconstruction of geomagnetic variability and of global cosmic ray flux and over the past 300 kyr

a high resolution marine sedimentary record of geomagnetic intensity during the brunhes chron abstract this investigation of paleointensity employs data from four cores taken from two sites in the sulu sea during leg 124 of the ocean drilling program these sediments accumulated at a rate of about 10 cm ky yet they provide strong stable magnetizations a combination rarely found in the deep sea environment this study examines the interval of the last glacial cycle since 130 ka in most detail using paleomagnetic measurements from discrete samples to explore a variety of normalization parameters paleomagnetic remanence and susceptibility measurements taken aboard ship at odp site 769 extend the paleointensity record to the brunhes matuyama boundary after normalization by susceptibility the shipboard intensity data compare well with the more detailed measurements from discrete samples in the intervals for which such data are available and so complete a brunhes age 0 0 78 ma history of paleointensity for the sulu sea that record shows a number of short duration decreases in paleointensity that appear to be useful stratigraphic markers these results also indicate that the average geomagnetic dipole moment during the brunhes chron may have been considerably lower than the present value

an ice core perspective on the age of the matuyama brunhes boundary abstract two intervals of enhanced 10be flux thought to be associated with periods of low dipole intensity and identified as the matuyama brunhes transition and a precursor event have been observed in the bottom section of the epica dome c ice core the peaks span 764 776 ka and 788 798 ka on the new edc3 chronology with a stated absolute age uncertainty of 6 ka 2 this chronology uses orbital tuning of atmospheric oxygen 18 18oatm to correct for anomalies in ice flow in the bottom 500 m of the core an additional 28 18oatm data points have been measured to improve resolution and verify the accuracy of the tuning and the stated timescale uncertainty both the dating of the increased 10be and that relative to climatic records are compared to paleointensity records found in orbitally tuned marine sediments the mid point of the 10be peak associated with the m b is approximately 10 ka younger than the age determined radioisotopically from lavas with transitional orientations taking into account recent revisions to the 40ar 39ar dating standard and improved precision climatic constraints on the edc3 agescale make an error of this magnitude in the ice chronology implausible this age difference however is consistent with recent modeling suggesting that directional changes are spatially asynchronous and may precede the dipole intensity minimum in some locations although formally less precise than the published age from astrochronologically dated marine sediments ice core ages are potentially more accurate because they are not subject to lock in depth uncertainties

glaciomarine sequence stratigraphy in the mississippian rio blanco basin argentina southwestern gondwana basin analysis and palaeoclimatic implications for the late paleozoic ice age during the tournaisian the late palaeozoic ice age lpia has been well recorded in the uppermost mississippian pennsylvanian of gondwana nevertheless little is known about the temporal and geographic dynamics particularly during the early mississippian we report on exceptional tournaisian glaciomarine strati graphic sections from central argentina rio blanco basin encompassing 1400 metres these succes sions contain conspicuous glacigenic strata with age constraints provided by palaeontological data and u pb detrital zircon age spectra a variety of marine glaciomarine and fan deltaic environments indicate relative sea level variations mainly associated with tectonism and repetitive cycles of glacial activity provenance analysis indicates a source from the sierras pampeanas basement located to the east fifteen sequences were grouped into three depositional models 1 transgressive systems tracts tst to high stand systems tracts hst sequences unaffected by glacial ice 2 lowstand systems tracts lst to tst and then to hst with glacial in uence and 3 non glacial falling stage systems tract fsst to tst and hst the glacial evidence indicates that the oldest mississippian glacial stage of the lpia in southwestern gondwana is constrained to the middle tournaisian in contrast with previous descriptions of gondwanan coeval glacial records our sequence analysis confirms complex hierarchical climate varia bility rather than a single episode of ice advance and retreat supplementary material https doi org 10 6084 m9 figshare c 5011424

a comparison of deep antarctic ice cores and their implications for climate between 65 000 and 15 000 years ago abstract three ice cores drilled in the central part of the antarctic continent extend back to the last glacial period one from west antarctica byrd and two from east antarctica vostok and dome c this period is also partly covered by a few cores from the coastal areas in these cores climatic information is mostly derived from the isotopic profiles d or 18 o from which surface temperature and more indirectly precipitation rate can be estimated the main objective has been to compare thoroughly the three deep ice cores for the main part of the last glacial period from ca 65 000 15 000 yr b p the time scales have been examined in detail and a new 40 000 yr chronology for the dome c core adopted special emphasis is placed on the link between the concentration of 10 be and past accumulation changes and on the use of peaks in the concentration of this cosmogenic isotope as stratigraphic markers elevation changes of the ice sheet derived from gas content and isotopic data bear directly on interpretations of past temperature and precipitation rate changes

electrical conductivity method ecm stratigraphic dating of the byrd station ice core antarctica a continuous ecm profile strong acid concentration has been measured along the 2191 m of ice core recovered at byrd station antarctica in 1968 the ecm profile reveals continuous and systematic seasonal changes which are used for dating the ice core back to 50 000 bp hammer and others ecm stratigraphic dating of byrd station ice core antarctica

calibration of the c 14 timescale over the past 30 000 years using mass spectrometric u th ages from barbados corals uranium thorium ages obtained by mass spectrometry from corals raised off the island of barbados confirm the high precision of this technique over at least the past 30 000 years comparison of the u th ages with 14c ages obtained on the holocene samples shows that the u th ages are accurate because they accord with the dendrochronological calibration before 9 000 yr bp the 14c ages are systematically younger than the u th ages with a maximum difference of 3 500 yr at 20 000 yrbp the u th technique thus provides a way of calibrating the radiocarbon timescale beyond the range of dendrochronological calibration

geomagnetic paleointensity and environmental record from labrador sea core md95 2024 global marine sediment and ice core chronostratigraphy for the last 110 kyr piston core md95 2024 from the labrador rise provides a continuous record of rapidly deposited detrital layers denoting laurentide ice sheet lis instability the core also provides a high resolution record of geomagnetic paleointensity that is consistent with but at higher temporal resolution than previous labrador sea records correlation to the greenland summit ice cores grip gisp2 is achieved by assuming that labrador sea detrital layers correspond to cold stadials in the ice cores this allows a gisp2 official chronology to be placed on md95 2024 which is consistent with the inverse correlation between paleointensity and the flux of cosmogenic isotopes 10 be and 36 cl in greenland ice cores synchronous millennial scale variability observed from the md95 2024 paleointensity

dating the vostok ice core by an inverse method using the chronological information available in the vostok records we apply an inverse method to assess the quality of the vostok glaciological timescale the inversion procedure provides not only an optimized glaciological timescale and its confidence interval but also a reliable estimate of the duration of successive events our results highlight a disagreement between orbitally tuned and glaciological timescales below 2700 m i e 250 kyr b p thousands of years before present this disagreement could be caused by some discontinuity in the spatial variation of accumulation upstream of vostok moreover the stratigraphic datings of central greenland ice cores grip and gisp2 appear older than our optimized timescale for the late glacial this underlines an unconsistency between the physical assumptions used to construct the vostok glaciological timescale and the stratigraphic datings the inverse method allows the first assessment of the evolution of the phase between vostok climatic records and insolation this phase significantly varies with time which gives a measure of the nonlinear character of the climatic system and suggests that the climatic response to orbital forcing is of different nature for glacial and interglacial periods we confirm that the last interglacial as recorded in the vostok deuterium record was long 16 2 2 kyr thousands of years however midtransition of termination ii occurred at 133 4 2 5 kyr bp which does not support the recent claim for an earlier deglaciation finally our study suggests that temperature changes are correctly estimated when using the spatial present day deuterium temperature relationship to interpret the vostok deuterium record

geomagnetic modulation of the 36cl flux in the grip ice core greenland geomagnetic field strength is expected to affect the production rate of cosmogenic isotopes such as beryllium 10 carbon 14 or chlorine 36 chlorine 36 data from the greenland ice core project grip ice core agree well with a production rate calculation based on a paleomagnetic reconstruction for the past 100 000 years over both long and short term variations a chlorine 36 peak at 38 000 years ago previously found in the beryllium 10 record from the vostok ice core can be explained by a period of low geomagnetic field intensity

increased production of cosmogenic 10be during the last glacial maximum beryllium 10 half life 1 5 myr is produced by spallation of nitrogen and oxygen atoms by cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere its production rate is proportional to the flux of cosmic rays which is modulated by solar activity and the strength of the earth s magnetic field1 2 weakening of the magnetic field allows more cosmic rays to impinge on the earth s atmosphere thereby increasing 10be production here we report that the ocean wide average accumulation rate of 10be in pacific sediments which reflects the global average production rate of 10be ref 3 was at least 25 greater during the height of the most recent ice age 24 000 16 000 yr ago than during the holocene the past 10 000 yr the higher production rate of 10be records the lower intensity of the geomagnetic field during that period and is consistent with the hypothesis developed to explain the younger 14c ages of fossil corals compared with ages obtained by u th dating4 these results also point to a more general need to consider variations in production rate in geochronological studies using other cosmogenic nuclides

geochemical and geophysical implications of the radiocarbon calibration abstract a precise and accurate chronological framework is crucial to study the dynamics of a variety of phenomena which occurred during the last 45 000 years although the 14 c dating method has been widely applied since the 1950s it is recognized that the atmospheric 14 c 12 c ratio has not been stable during the past in order to calculate accurate ages these fluctuations have to be corrected by means of a calibration curve obtained by comparing raw 14 c measurements with true calendar ages provided by independent dating methods the calibration curve obtained so far is characterized by a long term trend with raw 14 c ages being significantly younger than calendar ages during most of the last 45 000 years abrupt 14 c shifts which occurred over centuries to millennia are superimposed on this long term trend of decreasing atmospheric 14 c 12 c ratio to a certain extent it is possible to outline the different causes of atmospheric 14 c variations by considering complementary information obtained from other cosmogenic nuclides studied at different latitudes 1 most high frequency changes in the atmospheric 14 c 12 c ratio are linked to magnetic fluctuations of solar origin as revealed by studying the last three centuries for which direct observations of the sun are available a similar conclusion is derived by comparing 14 c 12 c events with 10 be and 36 cl concentration maxima in polar ice cores 2 the long term trend shift of 14 c ages is due to a long period of decreased shielding effect of the geomagnetic dipole field which occurred over the interval between 10 000 and 40 000 years bp this interpretation is supported by paleomagnetic measurements performed on volcanic and sedimentary rocks and by 10 be and 36 cl analysed in low and high latitude records 3 a prominent and rapid atmospheric 14 c 12 c excursion occurred between 13 000 and 11 500 cal yr bp thus corresponding to the younger dryas cold period by contrast with the 14 c variability mentioned above which is linked to 14 c production changes this so called 14 c age plateau is probably due to an abrupt variation in the rates of exchange within the global carbon cycle this interpretation is supported by independent geochemical proxies and by numerical modelling of the carbon cycle

secular non random variations of cosmogenic carbon 14 in the terrestrial atmosphere abstract the time dependence of the14c content of bristlecone pine wood samples dated by their tree rings and grown during the last 8000 years was examined the14c values as measured by the la jolla radiocarbon laboratory were used for the investigation two different smoothing techniques were used for constructing values for equal time intervals in this manner the introduction of regularities that could have resulted from applied mathematical techniques could be excluded there is good evidence for non random features in the power spectrum in particular for a 200 year periodicity the regularities in the power spectrum are further indications supporting the assumption that the14c variations reflect a property of the sun

evidence for two intervals of enhanced 10 be deposition in antarctic ice during the last glacial period we have previously reported concentration profiles of cosmic ray produced cosmogenic 10be in deep ice cores from dome c and vostok antarctica1 2 in both these cores we found a concentration of 10be approximately two times larger in ice from the late glacial period than in the holocene ice we interpreted this as probably resulting from a lower precipitation rate on the antarctic plateau during glacial periods compared to interglacial periods in the vostok profile there was one sample corresponding to 60 000 yr bp which gave an unusually large 10be concentration not correlated with any obvious climatic event we suggested that this sample might be reflecting increased 10be production as for example during a period of reduced solar modulation2 we have now measured a much more detailed concentration profile for 10be in the vostok core the results confirm a 10be peak lasting 1 000 2 000 years at 60 000 yr bp and show another similar peak at 35 000 yr bp we have also observed the latter peak in the dome c core we discuss possible sources for these peaks and their potential as stratigraphic markers

magnitude of isotope temperature scaling for interpretation of central antarctic ice cores 1 the conventional interpretation of ice core deuterium and oxygen 18 isotope profiles based on the use of present day observations spatial slope underestimates glacialinterglacial surface temperature changes in central greenland by up to a factor of two this likely results from changes in the seasonality of the precipitation due to the particular location of the greenland ice sheet next to the highly variable northern polar front in this regard the situation is much simpler for central antarctica and this should be reflected in the temperature interpretation of ice core isotopic records with this in mind we closely examine all relevant information focusing on the east antarctic plateau where both model and empirical isotope temperature estimates are available we point to the fact that correctly accounting for the influence of ocean isotopic change is important when interpreting deuterium profiles from ice cores in this region the evidence presently available indicates that unlike for greenland the present day spatial slope can probably be taken as a surrogate of the temporal slope to interpret glacial interglacial isotopic changes at sites such as vostok and epica dome c corresponding temperature changes are within 10 to 30 of those obtained from the conventional interpretation based on the use of the spatial slope index terms 1040 geochemistry isotopic composition chemistry 1827 hydrology glaciology 1863 3344 meteorology and atmospheric dynamics paleoclimatology 9310 information related to geographic region antarctica keywords water isotopes temperature estimate antarctica deuterium oxygen 18

a high resolution 10be profile from deep sea sediment covering the last 70ka indication for globally synchronized environmental events we present a high resolution be 10 profile from deep sea sediments sampled from hole 502b in the caribbean sea that strongly resembles the 10be record in ice core profiles particularly the vosto

a 150 000 year climatic record from antarctic ice during much of the quaternary the earth s climate has undergone drastic changes most notably successive glacial and interglacial episodes the past 150 kyr includes such a climatic cycle the last interglacial the last glacial and the present holocene interglacial a new climatic time series for this period has been obtained using 18 o data from an antarctic ice core

mono lake geomagnetic excursion found at summer lake oregon a 25 cm zone of anomalous paleomagnetic directions from lacustrine sediments near summer lake oregon has the same age and the same paleomagnetic signature as the younger part of the proposed mono lake geomagnetic excursion both field observations and rock magnetic studies support the hypothesis that the anomalous directions represent actual geomagnetic field behavior thereby confirming the existence of the mono lake excursion at the oregon site although confirmation of its existence at this site does not make the mono lake excursion any more suitable as a chronostratigraphic horizon this excursion may now be used as an additional constraint on models of geomagnetic field behavior including those that predict the morphology of transitional geomagnetic fields

environmental factors as complicating influences in the recovery of quantitative geomagnetic field paleointensity estimates from sediments we have recently recovered replicate records of the earth s magnetic field relative paleointensity for 12 71 000 years bp from marine sediments of the western north atlantic ocean our records are remarkably similar to two other recently published relative paleointensity records from marine and lacustrine sediments in europe this suggests to us that even over this wide region sediments may serve as reasonable correlatable recorders of fluctuations in the strength of the earth s magnetic field if this is true then similar records from around the globe could eventually provide valuable information about the deep earth processes which create the field we note however that our intensity record is significantly correlated with the down core ratio of magnetic susceptibility to anhysteretic remanent magnetism arm this ratio is a measure of the relative grain size of magnetite the primary magnetic mineral in these sediments and as such is a sediment magnetic property which is controlled only by the local depositional environment and indirectly by global climate we are concerned that the european records may be similarly biased by climatic or other environmental factors possibly synchronous with ours we caution that extreme care must be taken to understand and remove any such magnetic influences from sediment relative paleointensity records before they are used as quantitative estimators of the past intensity of the earth s magnetic field