on the 1470 year pacing of dansgaard oeschger warm events 1 the oxygen isotope record from the greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 ice core was reanalyzed in the frequency and time domains the prominent 1470 year spectral peak which has been associated with the occurrence of dansgaard oeschger interstadial events is solely caused by dansgaard oeschger events 5 6 and 7 this result emphasizes the nonstationary character of the oxygen isotope time series nevertheless a fundamental pacing period of 1470 years seems to control the timing of the onset of the dansgaard oeschger events a trapezoidal time series model is introduced which provides a template for the pacing of the dansgaard oeschger events statistical analysis indicates only a 3 probability that the number of matches between observed and template derived onsets of dansgaard oeschger events between 13 and 46 kyr b p resulted by chance during this interval the spacing of the dansgaard oeschger onsets varied by 20 around the fundamental 1470 year period and multiples thereof the pacing seems unaffected by variations in the strength of north atlantic deep water formation suggesting that the thermohaline circulation was not the primary controlling factor of the pacing period

timing of abrupt climate change a precise clock 1 many paleoclimatic data reveal a 1 500 year cyclicity of unknown origin a crucial question is how stable and regular this cycle is an analysis of the gisp2 ice core record from greenland reveals that abrupt climate events appear to be paced by a 1 470 year cycle with a period that is probably stable to within a few percent with 95 confidence the period is maintained to better than 12 over at least 23 cycles this highly precise clock points to an origin outside the earth system oscillatory modes within the earth system can be expected to be far more irregular in period

diagenetic cycling of arsenic in amazon shelf sediments in order to help elucidate major natural controls on the diagenetic behavior of as vertical profiles of total dissolved and solid phase as were measured in amazon shelf deposits a deltaic region little influenced by human activity arsenic distributions are typically characterized by subsurface porewater maxima and surficial solid phase enrichment maximum porewater as concentrations 2 4 m are an order of magnitude greater than levels reported in most other coastal marine environments and elevated concentrations extend several meters below the sediment surface dissolved as varies inversely with easily leachable as 40 140 nmol g 1 in the solid phase and directly with increases in solid phase fe ii these patterns reflect a strong redox coupling with fe whereby oxidized as is associated with fe oxyhydroxides in surface sediments then subsequently reduced and released upon burial in the extensive suboxic zone upward diffusion and intense physical reworking of sediments presumably releases the dissolved arsenic fraction to the water column or allows for re adsorption in surface sediments arsenic porewater concentrations generally increase away from the river in some cases regular seasonal variations are evident apparently corresponding to nonsteady state ingrowth of diagenetic profiles following extensive sediment reworking during rising river flow the massive cycling of as in amazon shelf sediments is likely due to the combined effects of intense chemical weathering in regions of the drainage basin production of oxides and a turbulent physical regime present on the shelf both of which promote sedimentary cycling of fe and coupled elements during early diagenesis

conceptual model for millennial climate variability a possible combined solar thermohaline circulation origin for the 1 500 year cycle dansgaard oeschger and heinrich events are the most pronounced climatic changes over the last 120 000 years although many of their properties were derived from climate reconstructions the associated physical mechanisms are not yet fully understood these events are paced by a 1 500 year periodicity whose origin remains unclear in a conceptual model approach we show that this millennial variability can originate from rectification of an external solar forcing and suggest that the thermohaline circulation through a threshold response could be the rectifier we argue that internal threshold response of the thermohaline circulation thc to solar forcing is more likely to produce the observed do cycles than amplification of weak direct 1 500 year forcing of unknown origin by thc one consequence of our concept is that the millennial variability is viewed as a derived mode without physical processes on its characteristic time scale rather the mode results from the linear representation in the fourier space of nonlinearly transformed fundamental modes

origin and consequences of cyclic ice rafting in the northeast atlantic ocean during the past 130 000 years deep sea sediment cores recovered from the northeast atlantic ocean were examined in order to elucidate the influence of the earth s orbital parameters on major ice rafting analyses of coarse grained ice rafted debris and planktonic foraminifers revealed a strong reaction to the precession signal since 130 000 yr b p dropstone layers have been deposited each half period of a precessional cycle 11 000 1000 yr ice rafting occurs during times of winter minimum summer maximum insolation and summer minimum winter maximum insolation in the first case high summer insolation forces meltwater discharge from the ice sheets into the polar seas which subsequently enhances formation of sea ice during the winter in the second case growth of continental ice enhances iceberg production which also leads to a salinity reduction of surface seawater both situations result in a southward penetration of polar water thus the marine record of dropstones documents ice rafting not only during weichselian stades but also during cold events within interstades the regularity of ice rafting yields a useful framework to calibrate and elucidate climatic changes not only in the region of the north atlantic ocean but also in remote areas such as the pacific ocean and the antarctic

interhemispheric space time attributes of the dansgaard oeschger oscillations between 100 and 0 ka the persistence stability and interhemispheric phasing of the dansgaard oeschger do climate oscillation over the last glacial period 0 100 ka has been evaluated in oxygen isotope records of three polar ice cores grip gisp2 and byrd station and a midlatitude deep sea core from the north atlantic ocean md95 2042 the results show that do oscillations in atmospheric conditions occurred in both northern and southern polar ice records although in the southern records the oscillations had at most only ca one tenth the power of those in the north the do oscillations first appeared duringmarine isotope stage mis 4 and the average spectral power of the northern hemisphere do oscillations increased markedly during mis 3 30 38 ka the do mode in the gisp2 record is confined to the frequency band 1 1 59 kyr to 1 1 37 kyr but in the grip record the mode exhibits strong frequency splittingover a band that is wider by ca 50 time frequency analysis shows that in grip the do mode underg oes a frequency modulation that is phase locked with the earth s obliquity cycle this modulation does not appear in nearby gisp2 in the north atlantic marine record do oscillations behaved somewhat differently appearingsporadically duringmis 5 and 4 the planktonic do oscillations increased in spectral power duringmis 3 leadingpeak power in the gisp2 record by ca 3 kyr do oscillations were relatively stable in all five records duringmis 3 they could not be detected unequivocally in any of the records duringthe holocene 0 11 ka at other times the do mode in all of the records was amplitude modulated by earth s orbital parameters finally interhemispheric phasingof do oscillations over 10 90 ka was assessed between the byrd station and gisp2 records and between the benthic and planktonic records of core md95 2042 coherency studies reveal an apparent time lead of byrd do oscillations over gisp2 by 384770 yr 2s level and of the north atlantic benthic over planktonic do oscillations by 208733 yr this apparent time lead of the southern over the northern temperature proxies is likely the consequence of the distinctive harmonic shapes affecting the northern rectangular vs southern triangular do oscillations the actual northern southern relationship as suggested by modelling and other recent data studies is most probably in simple antiphase cross phase of 1801 r 2002 published by elsevier science ltd

iceberg discharges into the north atlantic on millennial time scales during the last glaciation high resolution studies of north atlantic deep sea cores demonstrate that prominent increases in iceberg calving recurred at intervals of 2000 to 3000 years much more frequently than the 7000 to 10 000 year pacing of massive ice discharges associated with heinrich events the calving cycles correlate with warm cold oscillations called dansgaard oeschger events in greenland ice cores each cycle records synchronous discharges of ice from different sources and the cycles are decoupled from sea surface temperatures these findings point to a mechanism operating within the atmosphere that caused rapid oscillations in air temperatures above greenland and in calving from more than one ice sheet

responses of the okhotsk sea environment and sedimentology to global climate changes at the orbital and millennial scale during the last 350 kyr abstract we measured productivity proxies chlorin carbonate and organic carbon opal and biogenic ba content and lithophysical proxies magnetic susceptibility water content density and coarse sediment fraction in sediment of central okhotsk sea core pc 7r the age model covering the last 350 kyr of this core was constructed by correlating the dated series of relative paleointensity lows recognized in geomagnetic intensity records marine isotope stage mis boundaries determined in broad variations of the lithophysical and productivity proxies and tephrochronology the orbital changes of the lithophysical and productivity proxy stacks lag behind northern hemisphere summer radiation by approximately 6 3 and 5 9 kyr respectively this lag is consistent with a milankovich model of climate control by solar radiation through the northern ice sheet volume and sea surface and surrounding land responses which are fast compared with sedimentological evidence productivity proxies of the okhotsk sea also demonstrate 52 abrupt pronounced productivity minima associated with regional climate coolings during the last 350 kyr which present useful indicators of millennial scale climate changes in this marginal sea based on the postulated synchronicity of dansgaard oeschger cycles in the northern hemisphere and the established simultaneity of 11 okhotsk sea coolings in the last 77 kyr with abrupt severe cold events in the greenland ice core and north atlantic heinrich events all of these may be regarded as heinrich equivalent event anomalies the okhotsk sea events have their counterparts in the records of north atlantic sediments the greenland ice sheet east asia summer monsoon and the antarctic ice sheet probably the arctic oscillation was the main factor determining orbital and millennial climate oscillations in the high latitude northern hemisphere including the okhotsk sea region

diagenetic cycling of arsenic in the sediments of eutrophic baldeggersee switzerland sedimentation and benthic release of as was determined in baldeggersee a eutrophic lake in central switzerland sediment traps recorded as sedimentation during 1994 including a flood event in spring diagenetic processes were studied using porewater profiles at the sediment water interface and in deeper sediment strata deposited in the mesotrophic lake before 1885 sediment cores were used to calculate the accumulation and to construct the balance of sedimentation and remobilisation the results showed that the lake sediment acts as an efficient sink for as only 22 of the particulate as flux reaching the sediment surface was remobilised at the sediment water interface the as accumulation in the recent varved section of the eutrophic lake was 40 mg as m 2 a 1 iron reduction in older sediment caused a remobilisation of 1 2 mg as m 2 a 1 this upward flux from the deeper sediment was quantitatively immobilised in the recent sulfidic sediments the flood event in spring contributed about 34 of the yearly sediment load and led to distinct peak profiles of dissolved as in the porewater this evidence for rapid remobilisation disappeared within months

trace metal deposition and mobility in the sediments of two lakes near sudbury ontario the accumulation and mobility of fe mn al cu ni and pb in the sediments of two lakes clearwater ph 4 5 and mcfarlane ph 7 5 near sudbury ontario have been investigated the al cu and ni concentrations are expectedly relatively high in the overlying waters of clearwater lake and much lower for al and cu in mcfarlane lake the low trace metal concentrations found in the anoxic porewaters of clearwater lake could be explained by a sharp increase in porewater ph concomitant with so42 reduction and h2s production within the first 1 2 cm of the sediments which has conceivably led to the precipitation of mineral phases such as al oh 3 nis and cus in both lakes fe concentrations in anoxic porewaters appear to be controlled by fes and or feco3 formation solubility calculations also indicate mnco3 precipitation in mcfarlane lake in clearwater lake however both porewater and total mn were relatively low a possible result of the continuous loss of mn ii through the acidic interface it is suggested that upwardly decreasing total mn profiles resulting from the removal of mn from the top sediment layers under acidic conditions may constitute a reliable symptom of recent lake acidification the downward diffusion of ai cu and ni from the overlying water to the sediments has been estimated from their concentration gradients at the interface and compared to their total accumulation rates in the sediments in both lakes the diffusion of al is negligible compared to its accumulation rate however diffusion accounts for 24 52 of the accumulation of cu in the sediments of clearwater lake but appears negligible in mcfarlane lake the downward diffusive flux of ni is important and may explain 76 161 of the estimated ni accumulation rate in clearwater lake and 59 in mcfarlane lake the porewater cu and ni profiles suggest that the subsurface sedimentary trace metal peaks observed in clearwater lake as in other acid lakes may not be caused by sediment leaching or by a recent reduction in sedimentation but may have a diagenetic origin instead diffusion to the sediments thus appears to be an important and previously overlooked trace metal deposition mechanism particularly in acid lakes

arsenic distributions in porewaters and sediments of puget sound lake washington the washington coast and saanich inlet b c solid phase as mn al and excess 210pb and dissolved total as as 3 as 5 mn 2 fe 2 po 34 nh 4 and h2s profiles in 12 cores from puget sound lake washington the washington coast and saanich inlet b c are presented typically strong correlations between solid phase as and mn concentration maxima in surficial sediments are a result of intense as scavenging in the overlying waters by mn or ferich phases or solid phase as dissolution at depth followed by upward diffusion and co precipitation with mn or fe oxides at or near the sediment water interface atypically anthropogenic inputs cause high sedimentary as concentrations without accompanying high mn levels sedimentary as fluxes are an order of magnitude greater in puget sound and lake washington than off the washington coast and in saanich inlet porewater total as concentration profiles exhibit sub surface maxima with magnitudes 10 60 times greater than in overlying bottom waters porewater maxima in marine environments are proportional to associated solid phase as concentrations these maxima consistently occur within 1 0 cm of the bottom of the 210pb derived surface mixed layer suggesting solid phase as release to porewater in response to a redox gradient across this mixing boundary dissolved as behavior beneath these maxima indicates as removal to solid phases in marine but not lacustrine porewaters porewater as 3as 5 ratios are 1 0 for washington coastal environments and usually between 1 0 4 0 for puget sound and lake washington as 5 is below the detection limit in porewaters of saanich inlet when the overlying bottom water is anoxic but as 3as 5 ratios as low as 2 8 exist in near surface porewater under oxic bottom water conditions

origin of millennial scale climate signals in the subtropical north atlantic we present a high resolution planktonic foraminiferal stable isotope record globigerinoides ruber spanning marine oxygen isotope stages miss 6 through 8 in the northwestern subtropical atlantic ocean ocean drilling program leg 172 site 1059 the record fills a gap to produce an about 1 3 myr long continuous time series of high frequency 1 12 kyr surface ocean hydrography the first of this kind we test the hypothesis that the suborbital climate signals i e half and quarter precession cycles are linked to precession forcing in tropical latitudes semiprecession cycles present between 0 and 320 ka are of the right periodicity to relate to the dominant precession forcing 23 kyr these cycles are evident as double peaks within the given precession framework and there is good match in the amplitude modulation of the filter output and the 18o time series quarter precession cycles dominate the suborbital spectra between 320 ka and 1 3 ma periodicities are close to those expected from the harmonics of the dominant precession peaks in the 18o record but present in the time series only intermittently and their amplitude modulation does not match that of the primary precession period thus only the half precession cycles evidence a response to low latitude insolation such as that introduced by insolation maxima at the equinoxes or solstices during the course of a precession cycle additionally we find well defined rapid 1 5 2 kyr variations across the first of the interglacial maxima of mis 7 adding to evidence of non ice sheet related forcing factors in driving climate instabilities

the gisp2 δ18o climate record of the past 16 500 years and the role of the sun ocean and volcanoes measured 18o 16o ratios from the greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 ice core extending back to 16 500 cal yr b p provide a continuous record of climate change since the last glaciation high resolution annual 18o 16o results were obtained for most of the current millennium a d 818 1985 and record the medieval warm period the little ice age and a distinct 11 yr 18o 16o cycle volcanic aerosols depress central greenland annual temperature 1 5 c maximally and annual 18o 16o for about 4 yr after each major eruptive event on a bidecadal to millennial time scale the contribution of solar variability to holocene greenlandic temperature change is 0 4 c the role of thermohaline circulation change on climate problematic during the holocene is more distinct for the 16 500 10 000 cal yr b p interval analogous to 14c age calibration terminology we express time in calibrated cal yr b p a d 1950 0 cal yr b p the oldest dryas bolling older dryas allerod younger dryas sequence appears in great detail bidecadal variance in 18o 16o but not necessarily in temperature is enhanced during the last phase of lateglacial time and the younger dryas interval suggesting switches of air mass transport between jet stream branches the branched system is nearly instantaneously replaced at the beginning of the bolling and holocene at 14 670 and 11 650 cal yr b p respectively by an atmospheric circulation system in which 18o 16o and annual accumulation initially track each other closely thermodynamic considerations of the accumulation rate temperature relationship can be used to evaluate the 18 o 16o temperature relationship the gisp2 ice layer count years of major gisp2 climate transitions also support the use of coral 14c ages for age calibration

comparison of oxygen isotope records from the gisp2 and grip greenland ice cores recent results1 2 from the greenland ice core project grip summit ice core suggest that the climate in greenland has been remarkably stable during the holocene but was extremely unstable for the time period represented by the rest of the core spanning the last two glaciations and the intervening eemian inter glacial here we present the complete oxygen isotope record for the greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 core drilled 28 km west of the grip core we observe large rapid climate fluctuations throughout the last glacial period which closely match those reported for the grip core however in the bottom 10 of the cores spanning the eemian interglacial and the previous glacia tion there are significant differences between the two records it is possible that ice flow may have altered the chronological sequences of the stratigraphy for the bottom part of one or both of the cores considerable further work will be necessary to evaluate the likelihood of this and the extent to which it will still be possible to extract meaningful climate information from the lowest sections of the cores

mechanisms of abrupt climate change of the last glacial period 1 more than a decade ago ice core records from greenland revealed that the last glacial period was characterized by abrupt climate changes that recurred on millennial time scales since their discovery there has been a large effort to determine whether these climate events were a global phenomenon or were just confined to the north atlantic region and also to reveal the mechanisms that were responsible for them in this paper we review the available paleoclimate observations of abrupt change during the last glacial period in order to place constraints on possible mechanisms three different mechanisms are then reviewed ocean thermohaline circulation sea ice feedbacks and tropical processes each mechanism is tested for its ability to explain the key features of the observations particularly with regard to the abruptness millennial recurrence and geographical extent of the observed changes it is found that each of these mechanisms has explanatory strengths and weaknesses and key areas in which progress could be made in improving the understanding of their long term behavior both from observational and modeling approaches are suggested finally it is proposed that a complete understanding of the mechanisms of abrupt change requires inclusion of processes at both low and high latitudes as well as the potential for feedbacks between them some suggestions for experimental approaches to test for such feedbacks with coupled climate models are given

modes of global climate variability during marine isotope stage 3 60 26 ka recent analysis of 38 globally distributed paleoclimatic records covering marine isotope stage 3 mis 3 60 26 ka demonstrated that the two leading empirical orthogonal functions eofs explaining the data are the greenland ice core signal northern signal and the antarctic ice core signal southern signal here singular spectral analysis ssa is used to show that millennial scale variability of each of these two leading eofs is characterized by two independent modes the two modes of each eof share similar relative distributions of variance identical spectra and where each mode has spectral power coherency spectra which are significantly above the null hypothesis level at 95 confidence the only difference between the modes of the northern and southern signals is that they are phase shifted the phasing and long response time of the low frequency mode combined with its relationship to atmospheric co2 and sea level are consistent with coupled changes in the ocean ice sheets atmosphere and carbon cycle whereas the phasing and short response time of the high frequency mode are consistent with an atmospheric transmission likely induced by changes in hemispheric sea ice distributions and attendant feedbacks

early diagenesis of arsenic in sediments of the kalix river estuary northern sweden solid phase as fe mn s and al and pore water total as fe mn and s have been determined for two cores from the kalix river estuary at the same station the depositional flux of arsenic was measured sediment traps fe iii oxides persist in the anoxic zone of the sediment and act as a carrier for arsenic down to depths of 10 15 cm the release of arsenic into the pore water is controlled by the reduction dissolution of these oxides as a result internal cycling of arsenic i e upward diffusion in pore water re adsorption onto fe iii oxides in the oxidized surface layer and reburial occurs in the uppermost 10 15 cm at the base of the arsenic cycling zone solid phase arsenic maxima 160 170 g g 1 of probable diagenetic origin occur the quantity of arsenic diffusing back towards the oxidized surface layer 2 2 g cm 2 yr 1 as is close to 75 of the quantity of arsenic being deposited due to sedimentation 2 9 g cm 2 yr 1 as however a mass balance for the surface layer indicates that re adsorption of arsenic onto fe iii oxides may effectively prevent diffusion of dissolved arsenic back into the overlying water column it is concluded that the interpretation of sedimentary arsenic profiles may be severely complicated due to post depositional migration of arsenic

natural enrichment of arsenic in loch lomond sediments abstract concentrations of arsenic in surface or near surface sediment in 12 of 13 cores from the three major basins of loch lomond are substantially enhanced up to 675 mg kg compared with background values of 15 50 mg kg sedimentary as profiles are attributed to post depositional enrichment processes since there are no recent significant sources of environmental as contamination anthropogenic or natural in the loch lomond area the enrichments can be interpreted in terms of post depositional diagenetic remobilization processes in sediment reducing zones followed by upward migration of as through interstitial waters and oxidation adsorption precipitation reactions in near surface oxidizing layers confirmation of the diagenetic adsorption hypothesis is provided directly by the analysis of as species 1 5 81 g l in pore water and indirectly via comparison with sedimentary phosphorus

linking co2 degassing in active fault zones to long term changes in water balance and surface water circulation an example from sw turkey abstract calcite veins are commonly found at shallow depth a few metres below the surface in damage zones of active normal fault systems in southwest turkey although earlier studies demonstrated the link between the vein formation and seismicity the association of near surface carbonate precipitation with climate driven hydrological conditions water table amount of precipitation and evaporation and water discharge is poorly understood in this study using the u th dating method we investigate the timing of vein formation and the interrelationship between tectonic and climatic related hydrological processes carbonate precipitation is interpreted to occur as a result of sudden pressure drops and co2 release after earthquake induced fracturing vein formation mostly occurred during glacial periods which coincide with slow growth rates and higher oxygen isotope values of speleothems from the eastern mediterranean region we relate these episodes to reduced winter rainfall due to the decrease in westerly flow in sw turkey these somewhat drier conditions influenced the chemical composition of circulating water creating conditions conducive to carbonate precipitation and sealing of damage zones these conditions also facilitated co2 accumulation and overpressure build up in the rupture zones failure of the faults resulted in the release of large volumes of co2 rich fluids and the generation of shallow carbonate veins it is proposed that during phases of increased winter rainfall co2 is advected to the surface and discharged as passive degassing when meteoric water circulation is enhanced while regional tectonics is the ultimate driver of fault activity and fracture formation climate driven near surface hydrological changes may have played an important role in modulating co2 rich fluid circulation and surface discharge

quantifying the periodicity of heinrich and dansgaard oeschger events during marine oxygen isotope stage 3 article i nfo data from multiple ice and sediment cores in the north atlantic show that marine oxygen isotope stage 3 mis 3 was characterized by recurring millennial scale variations in climate but the periodic behavior of the well known millennial scale variations heinrich events and dansgaard oeschger events is uncertain we use oxygen isotope values from the greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 and north greenland ice core project ngrip ice cores and estimated sea surface temperature derived from a bermuda rise marine sediment core as climate proxies to assess the periodic behavior of heinrich events and dansgaard oeschger events using lomb scargle spectral decomposition and continuous time autoregressive models we find that continuous time autoregressive models produce less variable estimates of periodicity for heinrich events than lomb scargle methods heinrich events during mis 3 are periodic with an estimated periodicity of 6 29 6 49 ka in the gisp 2 ice core 6 71 6 76 ka in the marine sediment core and 7 89 8 23 ka in the ngrip core there is insufficient evidence from these data to conclude that dansgaard oeschger events ex hibit a single periodicity during mis 3 we also find that the periodic behavior of millennial scale variations depends on the observational time frame

paleoenvironmental dynamics of low order paleovalleys in the late quaternary palmas cacador summit surface southern brazil abstract the quaternary dynamics of landscapes in the subtropical continental region of brazil is not still well understood pedostratigraphic records of low order paleovalleys paleovalley heads and 1st and 2nd order paleovalleys of the palmas cacador summit surface serve as important resources for the identification of landscape component responses relief soil sediment and vegetation of plateau areas of southern brazil in the light of environmental changes driven by climatic variations of the late quaternary we integrated litho pedo allo and chronostratigraphic descriptions with carbon stable isotope analysis phytoliths indices and 14c and osl dating we found that at 44 86 ky bp there was a change in the hydrodynamics of 2nd order perennial channels humid climate controlled possibly by tectonics at 28 35 to 23 69 to 28 ky bp regressive pedogenesis in dry climate began with a predominance of erosion by overland flows at 2 60 to 23 69 ky bp full regressive pedogenesis occurred under a continuous climate regime of drier characteristics punctuated by millenary climatic fluctuations to a wetter regime of between 4 60 and 19 77 ky bp echoing the results postulated by the knox s model during this period the most pronounced modifications to the landscape were made with a change in vegetation from campo cerrado to campo limpo with changes in erosion patterns caused first by overland flows and then earthflows debris flows and with the gradual silting filling and burying of gullies valley heads and 1st and 2nd order valley bases since 2 60 ky bp the area returned to a predominance of progressive pedogenesis in wet and cold climates finally we found that at the local scale low order basins

surface and subsurface hydrology of debris covered khumbu glacier nepal revealed by dye tracing abstract while the supraglacial hydrology of debris covered glaciers is relatively well studied almost nothing is known about how water is transported beneath the glacier surface here we report the results of sixteen fluorescent dye tracing experiments conducted in april may 2018 over the lowermost 7 km of the high elevation debris covered khumbu glacier nepal to characterise the glacier s surface and subsurface drainage system dye breakthroughs indicated a likely highly sinuous and channelised subsurface hydrological system draining water from the upper part of the ablation area this flowpath was distinct from the linked chain of supraglacial ponds present along much of the glacier s lower ablation area through which water flow was extremely slow 0 003 m s 1 likely reflecting the study s timing during the pre monsoon period subsurface drainage pathways emerged at the glacier surface close to the terminus and flowed into small near surface englacial reservoirs that typically delayed meltwater transit by several hours we observed rapid pathway changes resulting from surface collapse indicating a further distinctive aspect of the drainage of debris covered glaciers we conclude that the surface and subsurface drainage of khumbu glacier is both distinctive and dynamic and argue that further investigation is needed to refine the characterisation and test its regional applicability to better understand future himalayan debris covered glacier meltwater delivery to downstream areas

heinrich events sediments a history of terminology and recommendations for future usage abstract we document the history of terms used to describe heinrich h layers and events and which mark major glaciological iceberg discharge events in the north atlantic we argue that the usage heinrich layer heinrich zone or heinrich event should be restricted to only those sediments that can be ascribed to an origin from the hudson strait ice stream and the laurentide ice sheet we also argue that the commonplace understanding of these events as dominated by massive iceberg discharges fails to include the earlier well documented evidence that these events were also massive meltwater events linked to deposition along the north atlantic mid ocean channel namoc in the labrador sea we make five recommendations for future usage of heinrich events which include restricting the usage to those events that can be mineralogically geochemically linked to hudson strait abandoning the term heinrich stadial and promote local terminology for ice rafted events that may be correlated or not with hudson strait heinrich events based on calibrated radiocarbon dates or other appropriate chronological markers

distribution of arsenic and other trace elements in the holocene sediments of the meghna river delta bangladesh geochemical study of the holocene sediments of the meghna river delta chandpur bangladesh was conducted to investigate the distribution of arsenic and related trace and major elements the work carried out includes analyses of core sediments and provenance study by rare earth element ree analysis results showed that the cores pass downward from silty clays and clays into fine to medium sands the uppermost 3 m of the core sediments are oxidized average oxidation reduction potential orp 230 mv and the orp values gradually become negative with depths 45 to 170 mv indicating anoxic conditions prevail in the meghna sediments the ree patterns of all lithotypes in the study areas are similar and are comparable to the average upper continental crust arsenic and other trace elements pb zn cu ni and cr have greater concentrations in the silts and clays compared to those in the sands positive correlation between as and fe was found in the sediments indicating as may be adsorbed on fe oxides in aquifer sediments

a new greenland ice core chronology for the last glacial termination 1 we present a new common stratigraphic timescale for the north greenland ice core project ngrip and grip ice cores the timescale covers the period 7 9 14 8 kyr before present and includes the bolling allerod younger dryas and early holocene periods we use a combination of new and previously published data the most prominent being new high resolution continuous flow analysis cfa impurity records from the ngrip ice core several investigators have identified and counted annual layers using a multiparameter approach and the maximum counting error is estimated to be up to 2 in the holocene part and about 3 for the older parts these counting error estimates reflect the number of annual layers that were hard to interpret but not a possible bias in the set of rules used for annual layer identification as the grip and ngrip ice cores are not optimal for annual layer counting in the middle and late holocene the timescale is tied to a prominent volcanic event inside the 8 2 kyr cold event recently dated in the dye 3 ice core to 8236 years before a d 2000 b2k with a maximum counting error of 47 years the new timescale dates the younger dryas preboreal transition to 11 703 b2k which is 100 150 years older than according to the present grip and ngrip timescales the age of the transition matches the gisp2 timescale within a few years but viewed over the entire 7 9 14 8 kyr section there are significant differences between the new timescale and the gisp2 timescale the transition from the glacial into the bolling interstadial is dated to 14 692 b2k the presented timescale is a part of a new greenland ice core chronology common to the dye 3 grip and ngrip ice cores named the greenland ice core chronology 2005 gicc05 the annual layer thicknesses are observed to be log normally distributed with good approximation and compared to the early holocene the mean accumulation rates in the younger dryas and bolling periods are found to be 47 2 and 88 2 respectively

the greenland ice core chronology 2005 15 42 ka part 2 comparison to other records a new greenland ice core chronology gicc05 based on multi parameter counting of annual layers has been obtained for the last 42 ka here we compare the glacial part of the new time scale which is based entirely on records from the northgrip ice core to existing time scales and reference horizons covering the same period these include the grip and northgrip modelled time scales the meese sowers gisp2 counted time scale the shackleton fairbanks grip time scale sfcp04 based on 14c calibration of a marine core the hulu cave record three volcanic reference horizons and the laschamp geomagnetic excursion event occurring around greenland interstadial 10 gicc05 is generally in good long term agreement with the existing greenland ice core chronologies and with the hulu cave record but on shorter time scales there are significant discrepancies around the last glacial maximum there is a more than 1 ka age difference between gicc05 and sfcp04 and a more than 0 5 ka discrepancy in the same direction between gicc05 and the age of a recently identified tephra layer in the northgrip ice core both sfcp04 and the tephra age are based on 14c dated marine cores and fixed marine reservoir ages for the laschamp event gicc05 agrees with a recent independent dating within the uncertainties

tipping points early warning and wishful thinking 1 the causes for and possible predictions of rapid climate changes are poorly understood the most pronounced changes observed beside the glacial terminations are the dansgaard oeschger events present day general circulation climate models simulating glacial conditions are not capable of reproducing these rapid shifts it is thus not known if they are due to bifurcations in the structural stability of the climate or if they are induced by stochastic fluctuations by analyzing a high resolution ice core record we exclude the bifurcation scenario which strongly suggests that they are noise induced and thus have very limited predictability

the greenland ice sheet project 2 depth age scale methods and results the greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 depth age scale is presented based on a multiparameter continuous count approach to a depth of 2800 m using a systematic combination of parameters that have never been used to this extent before the ice at 2800 m is dated at 110 000 years b p with an estimated error ranging from 1 to 10 in the top 2500 m of the core and averaging 20 between 2500 and 2800 m parameters used to date the core include visual stratigraphy oxygen isotopic ratios of the ice electrical conductivity measurements laser light scattering from dust volcanic signals and major ion chemistry gisp2 ages for major climatic events agree with independent ages based on varve chronologies calibrated radiocarbon dates and other techniques within the combined uncertainties good agreement also is obtained with greenland ice core project ice core dates and with the specmap marine timescale after correlation through the 18 o of o 2 although the core is deformed below 2800 m and the continuity of the record is unclear we attempted to date this section of the core on the basis of the laser light scattering of dust in the ice

early diagenetic influences on iron transformations in a freshwater lake sediment abstract iron transformations in a calcium carbonate rich fresh water sediment were studied by analyzing the relevant constituents of both interstitial water and solid matter analysis of interstitial water shows that the observed redox sequence no 3 nh 4 mno 2 mn ii feooh fe ii so 2 4 s ii is roughly in agreement with that predicted by the gibbs free energy for the corresponding reactions in contrast to marine sediments these redox transitions occur in the uppermost sediments i e at depths of 0 4 cm deeper in the sedimentary sequence the depth profile for dissolved iron exhibits a steady non linear increase up to 400 mol dm 3 in this anoxic zone according to thermodynamic predictions iron ii minerals such as iron sulfide siderite and vivianite should precipitate while fe iii oxides should be completely dissolved however microscopic analysis showed that fe iii oxides were present throughout the studied sediment furthermore scanning electron microscope energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis suggests the presence of iron sulfide could be verified but not that of siderite or vivianite these observations indicate kinetic control of iron transformations we have investigated the importance of kinetic control of iron distribution in anoxic sediments using a diagenetic model for dissolved iron ii a rough estimate of time scales for dissolution and precipitation rates was made by imposing limiting boundary conditions using the calculated rate constant we established that more than 1000 years would be required for the complete dissolution of fe iii oxides which is agreement with our observations and experimental data from the literature calculated precipitation rates of fe ii for a given mineral phase such as siderite yield a maximum value of 3 g feco3 g 1 dry sediment yr 1 such low rates would explain the absence of siderite and vivianite finally it can be inferred from the mn t fe t ratio in the sediments that this ratio depends on the redox conditions of the sediment water interface at the time of deposition thus this ratio can be used as paleo redox indicator in lacustrine sediments

oxygen 18 16 variability in greenland snow and ice with 10 3 to 105 year time resolution the 3 km long greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 ice core presents a 100 000 year detailed oxygen isotope profile covering almost a full glacial interglacial cycle measuranents of isotopic fluctuations in snow frost and atmospheric water vapor samples collected during summer field seasons up to 20 0 are compatible with the large and abrupt 80 160 changes observed in accumulated tim snow pit 15 80 profiles from the gisp2 summit area however show rapid smoothing of the 180 160 signal near the surface beyond about 2 m depth the smoothedi5180 signal is fairly well preserved and can be interpreted in terms of average local weather conditions and climate the longer climate fluctuations also have regional and often global significance in the older part of the record corresponding to marine isotope stages mis 5a to 5d the effect of orbital climate forcing via the 19 and 23 kyr precession cycles and the 41 kyr obliquity cycle is obvious from the end ofmis 5a at about 75 000 years b p till the end of the glacial at the younger dryas preboreal transition at 11 650 years b p the o180 160 record shows frequent rapid switches between intermediate interstadial and low stadial values fourier spectra of the oscillations that are superimposed on the orbitally induced changes contain a strong periodicity at 1 5 kyr a broad peak at 4 0 kyr and additional shorter periods detailed comparison of the gisp2 180 160 record with the vostok antarctica 15d record pacific ocean foraminiferal 180 160 grande pile france tree pollen and insolation indicates that a counterpart to many of the rapid 180 160 fluctuations of gisp2 can be found in the other records and that the gisp2 isotopic changes clearly are the local expression of climate changes of worldwide extent correlation of events on the independent gisp2 and specmap time scales for the interval 10 000 50 000 years b p shows excellent chronometric agreement except possibly for the event labeled 3 1 the glacial to interglacial transition evidently started simultaneously in the arctic and the antarctic but its development and its expression in greenland isotopes was later suppressed by the influence of meltwater especially from the barents sea ice sheet on deep water formation and ocean circulation meltwaters from different ice sheets bordering the north atlantic also influenced ocean circulation during the bolling allerod interstadial complex and the younger dryas and led to a distinct development of european climate and greenland 180 160 values the holocene interval with long term stable mean isotopic values contains several fluauations with periods from years to millennia dominant is a 6 3 year oscillation with amplitude up to 3 to 4 0 periodicities of 11 and 210 years also found in the solar modulated records of the cosmogenic isotopes 1obe and 14c suggest solar processes as the cause of these cycles depression of180 160 values cooling by volcanic eruptions is observed in stacked gisp215 80 records but the effect is small and not likely to trigger major climate changes

stochastic resonance in the north atlantic large abrupt changes between warm and cold modes of north atlantic climate exhibit spectral power at 1500 years yet some climatic changes were linked to outburst floods and other events that are unlikely to have been truly periodic we hypothesize that a weak periodic forcing has combined with noise from ice sheet related events to cause the observed mode switches this stochastic resonance hypothesis predicts a recurrence pattern between warmings that is distinct from the predictions of simple periodic and stochastic models and at least some other models the ice isotopic data from central greenland ice cores are consistent with the stochastic resonance hypothesis but not with other models we have tested we thus support arguments for the existence of a periodicity of 1500 years in the north atlantic climate system and for the importance of ice sheet events in forcing north atlantic changes

stable isotope response to lake eutrophication calibration of a high resolution lacustrine sequence from baldeggersee switzerland stable isotope analyses of discrete seasonal layers from a 108 yr annually laminated freeze core from baldeg gersee a small eutrophic lake in central switzerland provide information on the climatological and environmental factors including lake eutrophication that control oxygen and carbon isotopic composition of epilimnic biologically induced calcite precipitate during the last 100 yr baldeggersee has undergone major increases in productivity and eutrophication in response to nutrient loading from agriculture and industrialization in the lake s watershed calibration of the isotopic signal in baldeggersee to historical limnological data quantitatively links evidence of isotopic depletion in the sedimented calcite to trophic state of the lake 18o values from the spring summer light sediment layers steadily diverged to more depleted values in response to historical eutrophication measured 18o values were up to 21 5 more negative than calculated equilibrium 18o values evidence for 13c depletion in the calcite relative to equilibrium values is more difficult to ascertain because of an overall dominance of isotopic enrichment in the dissolved inorganic pool as productivity in baldeggersee increases a positive association exists between the degree of oxygen 18 depletion and the calcite crystal size thus large amorphous calcite grains can be used as a proxy for recognizing apparent isotopic nonequilibrium in sediment sequences from highly productive lacustrine environments from all geologic time scales in contrast to the light layers the oxygen isotopic composition of the calcite in the late summer fall dark sediment layers is unaffected by the apparent isotope nonequilibrium oxygen and carbon isotope values from the dark laminae in the baldeggersee sediment therefore provide environmental and climatological proxies that can be calibrated with known environmental and regional climate data for the last century

a synchronized dating of three greenland ice cores throughout the holocene as part of the effort to create the new greenland ice core chronology 2005 gicc05 a synchronized stratigraphical timescale for the holocene parts of the dye 3 grip and ngrip ice cores is made by using volcanic reference horizons in electri cal conductivity measurements to match the cores the main annual layer counting is carried out on the most suited records only exploit ing that the three ice cores have been drilled at locations with different climatic con ditions and differences in ice flow however supplemental counting on data from all cores has been performed between each set of reference horizons in order to verify the valid ity of the match after the verification the main dating is transferred to all records us ing the volcanic reference horizons as tie points an assessment of the mean annual layer thickness in each core section confirms that the new synchronized dating is consistent for all three cores the data used for the main annual layer counting of the past 7900 years are the dye 3 grip and ngrip stable isotope records as the high accumulation rate at the dye 3 drill site makes the seasonal cycle in the dye 3 stable isotopes very resistant to firn diffusion an effort has been made to extend the dye 3 holocene record the new syn chronized dating relies heavily on this record of 75 000 stable isotope samples the dat ing of the early holocene consists of an already established part of gicc05 for grip and ngrip which has now been transferred to the dye 3 core gicc05 dates the younger dryas termination as defined from deuterium excess to 11 703 b2k 130 years earlier than the previous grip dating

evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250 kyr ice core record recent results1 2 from two ice cores drilled in central greenland have revealed large abrupt climate changes of at least regional extent during the late stages of the last glaciation suggesting that climate in the north atlantic region is able to reorganize itself rapidly perhaps even within a few decades here we present a detailed stable isotope record for the full length of the greenland ice core project summit ice core extending over the past 250 kyr according to a calculated timescale we find that climate instability was not confined to the last glaciation but appears also to have been marked during the last interglacial as explored more fully in a companion paper3 and during the previous saale holstein glacial cycle this is in contrast with the extreme stability of the holocene suggesting that recent climate stability may be the exception rather than the rule the last interglacial seems to have lasted longer than is implied by the deep sea specmap record4 in agreement with other land based observations5 6 we suggest that climate instability in the early part of the last interglacial may have delayed the melting of the saalean ice sheets in america and eurasia perhaps accounting for this discrepancy

a two parameter stochastic process for dansgaard oeschger events 1 various climatic processes are thought to evolve as rapid shift like events which points at the presence of nonlinear dynamics time series analysis of nonlinear processes however is not trivial for example because of the difficulty in coming up with a realistic random process as a viable null hypothesis in this methodology paper we construct a basic two parameter process of shift like excursions in an excitable system with a threshold we demonstrate that this stochastic process in comparison with a specific one parameter process can better reproduce main features of the waiting time histogram of abrupt glacial climate events the dansgaard oeschger events as seen in two paleoclimatic proxy records the north greenland ice core project ngrip ice core and the sofular stalagmite 18o records we use the two parameter process to test some arguments that were proposed in the ongoing discussion of a possible solar role in triggering dansgaard oeschger events using our approach we suggest for future studies to generate time series of random events which can serve as a more plausible null hypothesis for monte carlo based statistical tests on the regularity of shift like processes such as dansgaard oeschger events

surface and deep ocean variability in the northern sargasso sea during marine isotope stage 3 new geochemical proxy data from bermuda rise piston cores reveal ocean and climate conditions in the northern sargasso sea during marine isotope stage 3 using 18o on the planktonic foraminifer globigerinoides ruber we can correlate explicitly with every stadial interstadial change in greenland ice between 32 and 58 ka these data suggest repetitive changes of 4 c in the annual average sea surface temperature sst with maximum cooling comparable to or greater than sst during glacial maximum conditions the extent of sst depression is about the same for typical stadial events and for heinrich events 4 and 5 which we have identified on the bermuda rise by traces of ice rafting benthic foraminiferal 13c decreases during every stadial event consistent with reduced production of the deepest component of north atlantic deep water and shoaling of its interface with antarctic bottom water this interpretation is supported by benthic cd ca data from the climate cycle associated with interstadial 8

the recurrence time of dansgaard oeschger events and limits on the possible periodic component abstract by comparing the high resolution isotopic records from the greenland ice core project grip and the north greenland ice core project ngrip ice cores the common climate signal in the records has been approximately separated from local noise from this an objective criterion for defining dansgaard oeschger do events is achieved the analysis identifies several additional short lasting events increasing the total number of do events to 27 in the period 12 90 kyr before present bp the quasi regular occurrence of the do events could indicate a stochastic or coherent resonance mechanism governing their origin from the distribution of waiting times a statistical upper bound on the strength of a possible periodic forcing is obtained this finding indicates that the climate shifts are purely noise driven with no underlying periodicity

the greenland ice core chronology 2005 15 42 ka part 1 constructing the time scale the greenland ice core chronology 2005 gicc05 is extended back to 42 ka b2k before 2000 ad i e to the end of greenland stadial 11 the chronology is based on independent multi parameter counting of annual layers using comprehensive high resolution measurements available from the north greenland ice core project ngrip these are measurements of visual stratigraphy conductivity of the solid ice electrolytical melt water conductivity and the concentration of na c a 2 s o 4 n o 3 n h 4 a n uncertainty estimate of the time scale is obtained from identification of uncertain annual layers which are counted as 0 570 5 years the sum of the uncertain annual layers the so called maximum counting error of the presented chronology ranges from 4 in the warm interstadial periods to 7 in the cold stadials the annual accumulation rates of the stadials and interstadials are on average one third and half of the present day values respectively and the onset of the greenland interstadials 2 3 and 8 based on 20 year averaged d 18 o

timing of millennial scale climate change in antarctica and greenland during the last glacial period a precise relative chronology for greenland and west antarctic paleotemperature is extended to 90 000 years ago based on correlation of atmospheric methane records from the greenland ice sheet project 2 and byrd ice cores over this period the onset of seven major millennial scale warmings in antarctica preceded the onset of greenland warmings by 1500 to 3000 years in general antarctic temperatures increased gradually while greenland temperatures were decreasing or constant and the termination of antarctic warming was apparently coincident with the onset of rapid warming in greenland this pattern provides further evidence for the operation of a bipolar see saw in air temperatures and an oceanic teleconnection between the hemispheres on millennial time scales

heinrich events massive late pleistocene detritus layers of the north atlantic and their global climate imprint 1 millennial climate oscillations of the glacial interval are interrupted by extreme events the so called heinrich events of the north atlantic their near global footprint is a testament to coherent interactions among earth s atmosphere oceans and cryosphere on millennial timescales heinrich detritus appears to have been derived from the region around hudson strait it was deposited over approximately 500 250 years several mechanisms have been proposed for the origin of the layers binge purge cycle of the laurentide ice sheet jokulhlaup activity from a hudson bay lake and an ice shelf buildup collapse fed by hudson strait to determine the origin of the heinrich events i recommend 1 further studies of the timing and duration of the events 2 further sedimentology study near the hudson strait and 3 greater spatial and temporal resolution studies of the layers as well as their precursory intervals studies of previous glacial intervals may also provide important constraints

subtropical north atlantic temperatures 60 000 to 30 000 years ago a reconstruction of sea surface temperature based on alkenone unsaturation ratios in sediments of the bermuda rise provides a detailed record of subtropical climate from 60 000 to 30 000 years ago northern sargasso sea temperatures changed repeatedly by 2 to 5 c covarying with high latitude temperatures that were previously inferred from greenland ice cores the largest temperature increases were comparable in magnitude to the full glacial holocene warming at the site abrupt cold reversals of 3 to 5 c lasting less than 250 years occurred during the onset of two such events greenland interstadials 8 and 12 suggesting that the largest most rapid warmings were especially unstable