late holocene surface ocean conditions of the norwegian sea voring plateau 1 late holocene sea surface ocean conditions of the eastern norwegian sea voring plateau are inferred from planktic stable isotopes and planktic foraminiferal assemblage changes in cores jm97 948 2a and md952011 66 97 n 7 64 e strong covariance between the planktic stable oxygen isotopic record and abundance changes of n pachyderma sin show that major changes in surface ocean conditions are reflected both in the geochemical composition of the foraminiferal tests as well as in the composition of the foraminiferal fauna surface ocean conditions warmer than present were common during the past 3000 years during the so called medieval warm period surface conditions were highly variable with marked changes in sea surface temperature the warmest sea surface temperatures during this period occurred between 800 and 550 years bp 0 bp ad 2000 climatic deterioration recorded as decreases in sea surface temperature occurred at about 2750 1550 400 and 100 years bp the cooling events at about 2750 and 1550 years bp appear to correlate with increases in ice rafted debris in the north atlantic based on the results from jm97 948 2a and md952011 the onset of the little ice age cooling trend seems to have occurred around 700 600 years bp faunal changes indicate two cooling events during the little ice age at 400 and 100 years bp that correspond to decreases in fennoscandian summer temperatures and increases in ice rafted debris in the eastern north atlantic index terms 3030 marine geology and geophysics micropaleontology 4267 oceanography general paleoceanography 4870 oceanography biological and chemical stable isotopes keywords paleoceanography stable isotope holocene micropaleontology citation andersson c b risebrobakken e jansen and s o dahl late holocene surface ocean conditions of the norwegian sea voring plateau paleoceanography 18 2 1044 doi 10 1029 2001pa000654 2003

3d joint inversion of gravity data and rayleigh wave group velocities to resolve shear wave velocity and density structure in the makran subduction zone south east iran abstract in this study we developed a method to invert jointly rayleigh wave group velocities and gravity anomalies for velocity and density structure of the lithosphere we applied the method to the makran accretionary prism se iran the reason for using different data sets is that each of these data sets is sensitive to different parameters surface wave group velocities are sensitive mainly to shear wave velocity distribution in depth but do not well resolve density variations therefore joint inversion with gravity data increases the resolution of density distribution our approach differs from others mainly in the model parameterization instead of subdividing the model into a large number of thin layers we invert for the properties of only four layers thickness p and s wave velocities and densities and their vertical gradients in sediments upper crust lower crust and upper mantle the method is applied first to synthetic models in order to demonstrate its usefulness we then applied the method to real data to investigate the lithosphere structure beneath the makran the resulting model shows that moho depth increases from oman sea 18 33 km and makran fore arc 33 37 km to the volcanic arc 44 46 km the crustal density is high in the oman sea as should be expected for the oceanic crust we also find a high velocity anomaly in the upper mantle under the oman sea corresponding to the subducting slab the crust under the fore arc volcanic arc and back arc settings of makran subduction zone is characterized by low velocity zones

rapid disintegration of the wordie ice shelf in response to atmospheric warming the breaking up of ice shelves around the antarctic peninsula has been cited1 as a sign that a dangerous warming is beginning in antarctica here we present satellite images showing the disintegration of the wordie ice shelf which lies off the west coast of the antarctic peninsula fig 1 fracture either in the form of surface crevasses or rifts extending to the bottom of the ice shelf has been responsible for iceberg calving and weakening the central region of the ice shelf these fracture processes which led to retreat of the ice front were apparently enhanced by the presence of increased amounts of melt water resulting from a warming trend recorded in mean annual air temperatures in marguerite bay if this warming trend continues other nearby ice shelves on the antarctic peninsula may be at risk but substantial additional warming would be required before similar processes could initiate breakup of the ross and filchner ronne ice shelves which help stabilize the west antarctic ice sheet

structure of the makran subduction zone from wide angle and reflection seismic data abstract makran is one of the largest accretionary wedges on the globe formed by the convergence between the eurasian and the arabian plates it is characterised by an extremely high sediment input of 7 km and a shallow subduction angle we present seismic velocity models from four wide angle seismic lines that image the wedge sediments and the subducted oceanic crust three strike lines show complex but rather one dimensional structures where the observed seismic phases have been studied with the reflectivity method a 160 km long dip line was surveyed coincident with a mcs line collected by cambridge university in 1986 prestack depth migration of this data with the new wide angle velocities shows improved images compared to earlier results interpretation of the wide angle and the mcs data indicates that a decollement is developed along a bright reflector within the turbiditic sequence more than 3 km of sediment bypasses the first accretionary ridges underthrusting and is transported to greater depth this might help to explain the sparse earthquake activity associated with subduction here in the strike lines low velocity layers occur landward of the deformation front in zones where active thrusting or underplating takes place the oceanic crust is characterised by a strong velocity contrast between layer ii and layer iii

holocene rainfall variability in southern chile a marine record of latitudinal shifts of the southern westerlies geochemical and clay mineral parameters of a high accumulation marine sediment core from the chilean continental slope 41 s provide a 7700 yr record of rainfall variability in southern chile related to the position of the southern westerlies we especially use the iron content measured with a time resolution of ca 10 yr on average of 14 caccelerator mass spectrometry dated marine sediments as a proxy for the relative input of iron poor coastal range and iron rich andean source rocks variations in this input are most likely induced by rainfall changes in the continental hinterland of the core position based on these interpretations we find a pronounced rainfall variability on multicentennial to millennial time scales superimposed on generally more arid conditions during the middle holocene 7700 to 4000 cal yr b p compared to the late holocene 4000 to present this variability and thus changes in the position of the southern westerlies are first compared to regional terrestrial paleoclimate data sets from central and southern chile in order to derive possible wider implications and forcing mechanisms of the holocene latitudinal shifts of the southern westerlies we then compare our data to ice core records from both tropical south america and coastal antarctica these records show similar bands of variability centered at ca 900 and 1500 yr comparisons of band pass filters suggest a close connection of shifts of the southern westerlies to changes within the tropical climate system the correlation to climate conditions in coastal antarctica shows a more complicated picture with a phase shift at the beginning of the late holocene coinciding with the onset of the modern state of el nin o southern oscillation system the presented data provide further evidence that the well known millennial scale climate variability during the last glacial continued throughout the holocene fl 2001 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

peat bank growth holocene palaeoecology and climate history of south georgia sub antarctica based on a botanical macrofossil record botanical macrofassil analysis of a more than 9000 years old radiocarbon dated peat sequence of a moss peat bank from south georgia shows a clear evolution in the vegetation seven ecological phases could be distinguished and they can be interpreted in terms of climate development during the holocene until 2200 years ago warnstorfia fontinatiopsis was the dominant moss species pointing to a wet environment lower numbers of this species in association with the presence of drier species are assumed to indicate drier periods such as occurring between ca 6000 5200 and 4400 3400 cal yr br the most prominent and definitive vegetation change took place around 2200 cal yr bp a polytilchum chollsodontium moss peat bank was formed which is still growing there today the forcing mechanism for this vegetation change is thought to be a temperature decrease rather than a precipitation decrease this conclusion is mainly based on the fact that today moss peat banks have their optimal occurrence range in the maritime antarctic a region were the mean annual temperature is ca 4 degrees c lower than on south georgia the remarkable change in the moss bank vegetation at 2200 cal yr bp raises the question whether this moment was only a short climatic deterioration or a definitive change to a cooler and wetter climate after a holocene climatic optimum period c 2008 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

sea ice and wind variability during the holocene in east antarctica insight on middle high latitude coupling abstract micropaleontological and biomarker data from two high accumulation marine sites from the coastal and continental shelf zone ccsz off east antarctica adelie land at 140 e and eastern prydz bay at 77 e are used to reconstruct holocene changes in sea ice and wind stress at the basin wide scale these data demonstrate congruent increase in sea ice concentration persistence and wind stress related sea surface turbulence in the two regions since 7 cal ka bp with a particularly strong signal since 4 5 3 5 cal ka bp comparison of these high latitude records with sea ice and turbulence records from the southern mid latitudes highlights distinctive climatic evolutions according to the different latitudinal bands sea ice persistence and turbulence increase in east antarctica ccsz are opposite to sea surface warming and sea ice retreat recorded after 4 5 3 5 cal ka bp in the east atlantic and indian sector between 55 and 45 s at the same period paleodata suggest sst cooling in all major coastal upwelling systems of the southern hemisphere caused by the northward transport of subpolar surface waters as a response to southern westerlies reinforcement we therefore propose as suggested for the northern hemisphere that holocene changes in the latitudinal insolation gradient primarily forced by obliquity and precession and amplified by sea ice and glacial ice expansions in the antarctic realm are responsible for the observed contrasted latitudinal patterns of southern latitudes

relationships between the interannual variability of antarctic sea ice and the southern oscillation abstract a climatology of antarctic sea ice extent based on 20 years of data 1973 1992 is presented including measures of interannual variability and extrema in the first half of the year the greatest variability is found in the western hemisphere particularly in the weddell and ross sea regions while in the second semester the variability displays a considerable degree of zonal symmetry we have used this dataset to explore the possible links between antarctic sea ice extent and the southern oscillation index soi to do this we have calculated their correlation for all pairings of calendar months as well as with the soi taken from the year before and subsequent to that of the time of the sea ice data most of the correlations assume their largest magnitude when the soi leads the anomalies in the sea ice but these differ considerably between the three ocean basins the extent of indian ocean sea ice in the months april through july is positively correlated with the soi during most of the previou

major features and forcing of high latitude northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation using a 110 000 year long glaciochemical series the greenland ice sheet project 2 glaciochemical series sodium potassium ammonium calcium magnesium sulfate nitrate and chloride provides a unique view of the chemistry of the atmosphere and the history of atmospheric circulation over both the high latitudes and mid low latitudes of the northern hemisphere interpretation of this record reveals a diverse array of environmental signatures that include the documentation of anthropogenically derived pollutants volcanic and biomass burning events storminess over marine surfaces continental aridity and biogenic source strength plus information related to the controls on both high and low frequency climate events of the last 110 000 years climate forcings investigated include changes in insolation of the order of the major orbital cycles that control the long term behavior of atmospheric circulation patterns through changes in ice volume sea level events such as the heinrich events massive discharges of icebergs first identified in the marine record that are found to operate on a 6100 year cycle due largely to the lagged response of ice sheets to changes in insolation and consequent glacier dynamics and rapid climate change events massive reorganizations of atmospheric circulation that are demonstrated to operate on 1450 year cycles changes in insolation and associated positive feedbacks related to ice sheets may assist in explaining favorable time periods and controls on the amplitude of massive rapid climate change events explanation for the exact timing and global synchroneity of these events is however more complicated preliminary evidence points to possible solar variability climate associations for these events and perhaps others that are embedded in our ice core derived atmospheric circulation records

climate change during the last deglaciation in antarctica greenland ice core records provide clear evidence of rapid changes in climate in a variety of climate indicators in this work rapid climate change events in the northern and southern hemispheres are compared on the basis of an examination of changes in atmospheric circulation developed from two ice cores high resolution glaciochemical series covering the period 10 000 to 16 000 years ago from a central greenland ice core and a new site in east antarctica display similar variability these findings suggest that rapid climate change events occur more frequently in antarctica than previously demonstrated

future directions of paleoclimate research abstract this viewpoint identifies two issues seen by the author as critical for future paleoclimate research i the nature and cause of climatic conditions during peak glacial times ii the geographic pattern of abrupt changes of climate and the factors that initiated these changes a list of research programmes designed to test these issues is given

large scale sediment underplating in the makran accretionary prism southwest pakistan field relations in the emergent part of the makran accretionary prism show that a mid miocene to early pliocene slope and shelf sedimentary sequence was deposited directly on abyssal plain turbidites without any detectable stratigraphic or structural discordance sedimentological evidence for rapid shoaling however indicates that the underlying sediment column was tectonically thickened by a factor of between two and three during this period this can be explained by large scale underthrusting and underplating of sediment a mode of accretion that is also favored by mass balance considerations the visible deformation in the coastal makran occurred when the region was 70 100 km north of the contemporary prism front

holocene climatic instability a prominent widespread event 8200 yr ago the most prominent holocene climatic event in greenland ice core proxies with approximately half the amplitude of the younger dryas occurred 8000 to 8400 yr ago this holocene event affected regions well beyond the north atlantic basin as shown by synchronous increases in windblown chemical indicators together with a significant decrease in methane widespread proxy records from the tropics to the north polar regions show a short lived cool dry or windy event of similar age the spatial pattern of terrestrial and marine changes is similar to that of the younger dryas event suggesting a role for north atlantic thermohaline circulation possible forcings identified thus far for this holocene event are small consistent with recent model results indicating high sensitivity and strong linkages in the climatic system

internal deformation and compaction of the makran accretionary wedge the makran accretionary wedge is one of the largest on earth a 7 km thick column of sands and quartzolithic turbidites are incorporated into this wedge in a series of deformed thrust sheets we present the results of prestack depth migration and focusing error analysis migration velocity analysis performed on a profile across the makran wedge the depth section shows the deformation style of the accreted sediments and the migration velocities allow us to estimate porosity variations in the sediments the thrust sheets show evidence of fault propagation folding with a long wavelength of deformation 12 km and secondary thrusting in the kink bands of the folds such that the central part of each thrust sheet is elevated to form an additional ridge this deformation style and the 15 steep surface slope of the first ridge suggest a high degree of consolidation porosities were calculated from the seismic migration velocities and the ratio of fluid pressure to lithostatic pressure was estimated for 5 locations along the profile rather than being undercompacted and overpressured as in most accretionary wedges the sedimentary input is normally compacted exponential porosity decay throughout almost the whole wedge however a slight increase in porosity and at depth with respect to the normal compaction curve indicates that the turbiditic sequence might be overpressured landward of the deformation front

millennial to decadal scale paleoenvironmental change during the holocene in the palmer deep antarctica as recorded by particle size analysis 1 a record of holocene paleoenvironmental variability from the antarctic peninsula has been produced using sediment cores from site 1098 gathered on ocean drilling project leg 178 the results provide an accurate and continuous record of biotic and sedimentologic responses to holocene environmental change holes 1098b and 1098c were used to produce the first ultrahigh resolution record of grain size variability for the past 13 000 years we utilized samples every 2 5 cm at 3 5 yr cm 1 which involved the analysis of 1466 samples from two holes at the site particle size was measured on uniform suspensions of dispersed particles using a laser diffraction method the particles are mainly grains of silt 65 85 and clay 15 35 size the analyses revealed that in most intervals biotic particles in the form of diatom frustules mostly spores dominate the silt component which is inversely reflected by magnetic susceptibility ms in intervals of the core that deviate from this relationship it was found that the ms signal correlated with medium to fine or coarse silt that was dominated by terrigenous rather than a biogenic diatom component spectral analyses of the variability in clay and medium fine silt content over the last 9000 calendar years reveal cycles of 1800 400 200 100 70 60 and 50 years the analyses revealed that particle size specifically medium fine silt is an excellent proxy for environmental change in the palmer deep region such changes may be forced by solar variability the 200 and 400 year cycles lunar tidal changes the 1800 year cycles and an as yet undetermined multidecadal forcing phenomena that operates in the se pacific sector of the southern ocean

holocene paleoclimate change in the antarctic peninsula evidence from the diatom sedimentary and geochemical record abstract holocene marine deposition in lallemand fjord antarctic peninsula is reinterpreted using statistical analyses cluster analysis analysis of variance nonmetric multidimensional scaling and multiple regression to compare diatom assemblages and the primary sedimentological proxies the assemblages have been deposited in a variable sea ice zone over the last ca 10 500 yr bp in response to a climate change in the late pleistocene early holocene 10 580 7890 yr bp a sea ice diatom assemblage was deposited in the presence of a retreating ice shelf at the head of the fjord in the mid holocene 7890 3850 yr bp an open water assemblage was deposited and sea ice cover was at a minimum we associate the assemblage with climatic warming which characterizes much of the antarctic peninsula during this time a second sea ice assemblage different from that deposited in the early holocene has been deposited in lallemand fjord since the late holocene

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

large scale development of the mid norwegian shelf over the last three million years and potential for hydrocarbon reservoirs in glacial sediments about 3 million years ago major ice sheets developed over scandinavia and began to deliverlargevolumesofsedimenttothemid norwegianshelf theshelfwasbuilt outina prograd ing pattern towards the west and more than 1000 m of sedimentswas deposited over large areas on the middle outer shelf the dominating large scale depositional pattern is a series of prograding wedges and flat lying sheet like units mainly of glacial origin on top of these units are flat lying till units deposited during the last few glaciations commonly separated from the underlying units by one or several erosional unconformities the lithology of these layers is generally fine grained mainly clay and silt but with sporadic clasts up to boulder size based on regional and detailed bathymetry the ice flow pattern from the last glaciation has been reconstructed on the shelf this involved a very dynamic ice sheet with fast flowing ice streams in the transverse cross shelf troughs separated by more passive ice domes on the intermediate shallow banks theicestreamsappeartofollowthecross shelftroughsfromglaciationtoglaciation butoccasion ally they switched to new flow paths the thick quaternary sediments on the outer part of the mid norwegian shelf represent a challenge for hydrocarbon exploration several large slides have occurred from the shelf break and down the continental slope during the last few years there has been an increased focus on investigating the quaternary succession in order to search for hydrocarbon prospects the potential for finding reservoirs in these sediments is discussed and a few examples of gas discoveries are shown the peon gas field c 250 km 2 is located in the gla cially eroded norwegian channel above the upper regional unconformity uru separating flat lying glaciogenic sediments from dipping sedimentary units the reservoir is developed in glacio fluvial sands a few hundred thousand years old and sealed by flat lying glaciomarine sediments and till units

bipolar changes in atmospheric circulation during the little ice age annually dated ice cores from siple dome west antarctica and central greenland indicate that meridional atmospheric circulation intensity increased in the polar south pacific and north atlantic at the beginning 1400 a d of the most recent holocene rapid climate change event the little ice age lia as deduced from chemical concentrations at these core sites the lia was characterized by substantial meridional circulation strength variability and this variability persists today despite strong evidence for an end to lia cooling thus increased late 20th century storm variability may be in part a result of the continuation of these climatic fluctuations

productivity cycles of 200 300 years in the antarctic peninsula region understanding linkages among the sun atmosphere oceans sea ice and biota compared to the rest of the world9s oceans high resolution late holocene paleoclimatic data from the southern ocean are still rare we present a multiproxy record from a sediment core retrieved from a deep basin on the western side of the antarctic peninsula that reveals a dramatic perspective on paleoclimatic changes over the past 3700 yr analyses completed include measurement of magnetic susceptibility and granulometry bed thickness particle size percent organic carbon bulk density and microscopic evaluation of diatom and benthic foraminiferal assemblages and abundances downcore variability of these parameters demonstrates the significance of both short term cycles which recur approximately every 200 yr and longer term events 2500 yr cycles that are most likely related to global climatic fluctuations in the upper 600 cm of the core lower values of magnetic susceptibility ms are correlated with lower bulk density the presence of thinly laminated units specific diatom assemblages and generally higher total organic carbon content below 600 cm magnetic susceptibility is uniformly low though variability in other parameters continues the magnetic susceptibility signal is controlled primarily by dilution of ferromagnetic phases with biosiliceous material this signal may be enhanced further by dissolution of magnetite in the magnetic susceptibility lows high total organic carbon the role of variable primary productivity and its relationship to paleoclimate is assessed through the diatom data in particular magnetic susceptibility lows are characterized by higher than normal abundances of chaetoceros resting spores corethron criophilum and or rhizosolenia spp also are found as is a higher ratio of the most common species of fragilariopsis versus species of thalassiosira these assemblages are indicative of periods of high primary productivity driven by the presence of a meltwater stabilized water column the 200 yr cyclicity noted in other paleoclimatic records around the world suggests a global forcing mechanism possibly solar variability in addition to the cyclic changes in productivity overall elevated productivity is noted below 600 cm or prior to ca 2500 yr b p this increased productivity may represent the tail end of a holocene climatic optimum which is widely recognized in other parts of the world but as yet is poorly documented in antarctica

an integrated palaeoenvironmental investigation of a 6200 year old peat sequence from ile de la possession iles crozet sub antarctica a 6200 year old peat sequence cored in a volcanic crater on the sub antarctic ile de la possession iles crozet has been investigated based on a multi proxy approach the methods applied are macrobotanical mosses seeds and fruits and diatom analyses complemented by geochemical rock eval6 and rock magnetic measurements the chronology of the core is based on 5 radiocarbon dates when combining all the proxy data the following changes could be inferred from the onset of the peat formation 6200 cal yr bp until ca 5550 cal yr br biological production was high and climatic conditions must have been relatively warm at ca 5550 cal yr bp a shift to low biological production occurred lasting until ca 4600 cal yr br during this period the organic matter is well preserved pointing to a cold and or wet environment at ca 4600 cal yr bp biological production increased again from ca 4600 cal yr bp until ca 4100 cal yr bp a hollow and hummock micro topography developed at the peat surface resulting in the presence of a mixture of wetter and drier species in the macrobotanical record after ca 4100 cal yr bp the wet species disappear and a generally drier acidic bog came into existence a major shift in all the proxy data is observed at ca 2800 cal yr br pointing to wetter and especially windier climatic conditions on the island probably caused by an intensification and or latitudinal shift of the southern westerly belt caused by a stronger wind regime erosion of the peat surface occurred at that time and a lake was formed in the peat deposits of the crater which is still present today c 2008 elsevier b v all rights reserved less

cold conditions in antarctica during the little ice age implications for abrupt climate change mechanisms abstract the little ice age lia is one of the most prominent climate shifts in the past 5000 yrs it has been suggested that the lia might be the most recent of the dansgaard oeschger events which are better known as abrupt large scale climate oscillations during the last glacial period if the case then according to broecker 2000a 2000b antarctica should have warmed during the lia when the northern hemisphere was cold here we present new data from the ross sea antarctica that indicates surface temperatures were 2 c colder during the lia with colder sea surface temperatures in the southern ocean and or increased sea ice extent stronger katabatic winds and decreased snow accumulation whilst we find there was large spatial and temporal variability overall antarctica was cooler and stormier during the lia although temperatures have warmed since the termination of the lia atmospheric circulation strength has remained at the same elevated level we conclude that the lia was either caused by alternative forcings or that the sea saw mechanism operates differently during warm periods

bransfield basin fine grained sediments late holocene sedimentary processes and antarctic oceanographic conditions the antarctic peninsula is sensitive to climatic change due to its northerly position and to the relatively reduced volume and character of its ice cover high resolution palaeoclimatic records from the ant arctic peninsula ice cores extend back only 500 years a climatic record of 2850 years in the bransfield basin is investigated through the analysis of sediment gravity cores from the floor of the central subbasin core gebra 1 and the slope of the eastern subbasin core gebra 2 sedimentological mineralogical and geo chemical properties have been systematically measured together with accelerator mass spectrometry ams radiocarbon dating the fine grained sediments result from two main processes hemipelagic settling from resuspensions and primary productivity and turbidity currents hemipelagic sediments were selected to investi gate the oceanographic and climatic conditions of the northern antarctic peninsula region during the last three millennia cold climatic periods are characterized by millimetric laminations and or black layers with higher organic carbon nitrogen and opal contents warm periods are recorded as massive to diffuse laminated facies with lower biogenic contents the results include the little ice age lia cold pulse as well as several 200 300 year long fluctuations within the lia and before this major climatic event of the holocene

decadal timescale links between antarctic peninsula ice core oxygen 18 deuterium and temperature the antarctic peninsula region has exprienced a long term warming trend over the twentieth century with the 1971 90 mean at faraday being 1 9 c warmer than the mean over 1903 41 based on expedition reports for the period prior to 1900 there is conflicting evidence from different data sources an initial interpretation of isotopic data from ice cores suggests that the nineteenth century was warmer than the twentieth century in contrast snow accumulation rate data for the nineteenth century from the same ice cores suggest lower temperatures here we investigate these facts by studying the links between atmospheric temperature over the antarctic peninsula circulation parameters and isotopic data over the period of instrumental records we show that the relationships between these variables are complex and highly spatially variable in particular the correlations between temperature and 18o and d are generally of the order r 0 5 or less on timescales of one to five years conflicts between evidenc

the marine record of deglaciation of the south shetland islands antarctica since the last glacial maximum abstract the marine geological record of the glacial retreat history of the south shetland islands is derived from the integration of seismic data core lithofacies radiocarbon ages and geomorphological data from two study areas on the northern shelf we present one of the first published multibeam bathymetric images of the seafloor this new image combined with descriptions of new and existing short sediment cores and high resolution seismic data from the continental shelf north of king george island are used to map a grounding zone wedge that marks the minimum seaward extent of the south shetland ice cap during the last glacial maximum seismic data multibeam bathymetry and sediment cores from maxwell bay on the opposite side of king george island are used to provide further spatial constrains on the history of grounding and retreat of the ice cap along the southern margin of the south shetland islands during the last glacial maximum the south shetland ice cap extended onto the outer continental shelf some 50 km north of its present location the ice grounded on the shelf in troughs in present water depths of almost 400 m it had a minimum thickness of 570 m and was also grounded in the deepest part of fjords and straits between the islands to the south the ice cap extended seaward of the mouths of fjords and straits to the steep northern boundary of the bransfield strait sediment eroded from the fjords and straits was deposited in prominent fans that extend into the bransfield strait and show evidence for an ice shelf that covered the bransfield strait during the last glacial maximum a long drill core shaldril in maxwell bay and several jumbo piston cores yielded carbonate material used to constrain the timing and spatial extent of glacial retreat within maxwell bay the oldest glacimarine sediments in the fjord date back to 14 1 to 14 8 ka and suggest an initial deglaciation earlier than most previous studies of the south shetland islands upper maxwell bay was ice free by 9 1 ka and most of maxwell bay proper was ice free by 5 9 ka except for the smaller tributary fjords of maxwell bay these smaller tributary fjords were ice free by 1 7 ka but may have been ice free earlier but reoccupied by a neoglacial advance that ended approximately 1 7 ka

brief interstadial events in the santa barbara basin ne pacific during the past 60 kyr the instability of the northern hemisphere glacial climate over the past 100 kyr has been revealed by at least 20 brief warm interstadial episodes called dansgaard oeschger events recorded in greenland ice cores1 3 and in north atlantic sedimentary records4 5 a few of these events have been recognized elsewhere6 8 here we describe a record of ocean oxygenation and circulation from the santa barbara basin in the northeast pacific ocean which correlates well with the greenland ice core records we see 19 of the 20 dansgaard oeschger events in the form of laminated sediments deposited under anoxic conditions and we can correlate at least 16 of these with the 17 ice core interstadials of the past 60 kyr thus these short term events were not restricted to the north atlantic region the events had substantial ecological and oceanographic effects in the santa barbara basin including changes in benthic faunal populations and in the age and composition of bottom waters similar ventilation changes have been seen in the gulf of california9 10 suggesting that these changes may have been widespread and synchronous along the northeast pacific margin these results suggest sensitivity of broad areas of the ocean atmosphere cryosphere system to short term climate change

meltwater input to the southern ocean during the last glacial maximum three records of oxygen isotopes in biogenic silica from deep sea sediment cores from the atlantic and indian sectors of the southern ocean reveal the presence of isotopically depleted diatomaceous opal in sediment from the last glacial maximum this depletion is attributed to the presence of lids of meltwater that mixed with surface water along certain trajectories in the southern ocean an increase in the drainage from antarctica or extensive northward transport of icebergs are among the main mechanisms that could have produced the increase in meltwater input to the glacial southern ocean similar isotopic trends were observed in older climatic cycles at the same cores

laminations from the palmer deep a diatom based interpretation 1 highly laminated holocene age diatomaceous sediments are characteristic of the palmer deep western antarctic peninsula ocean drilling program odp leg 178 site 1098 from 10 000 years b p to the present laminations are comprised of several groups of diatoms chaetoceros resting spores the dominant laminae former result from intense spring blooms rhizosolenia proboscia thalassiothrix and corethron are common also the consequence of summer production marked by a well stratified water column each lamination represents a single productivity event but laminations are not necessarily annual high concentrations of a subpolar form of eucampia antarctica in laminations between 9000 and 6700 years b p suggest early holocene warmth a consequence of southward intrusion of more subpolar waters the glacial interglacial transition is distinguished by pairs of laminae most likely deposited annually laminations with an overwhelming dominance of chaetoceros resting spores alternate with more terrigenous laminae representing alternation of intense spring blooms with more mixed deposition during the summer proximity to retreating glacial ice results in the supply of silt and sand that provides a marker bed between successive blooms

deformation at plate boundaries around the gulf of oman abstract seismic studies during charles darwin cruise 18 86 focused on three zones of deformation the makran accretionary prism the murray ridge owen fracture zone system and the continental margin of east oman a multichannel seismic reflection profile across the makran margin clearly imaged the imbricate thrust slices and their bounding faults a bottom simulating reflector bsr 500 800 m beneath the seabed marking the base of a gas hydrate stability zone may be traced across most of the profile the heat flow variation estimated from changes in the depth of this reflector shows evidence for localised fluid expulsion reflection profiles across the murray ridge show evidence for active extension along a series of major normal faults the rift structure is segmented with the fault polarity changing between segments a combined reflection and wide angle study of the east oman margin shows a deep offshore basin underlain by crust only 5 km thick and bounded by a basement ridge interpreted as a tilted fault block the wide angle data suggest a sleeply dipping moho beneath the margin the large lateral changes in crustal thickness may be explained by episodes of margin parallel shear

antarctic peninsula ice sheet evolution during the cenozoic era the antarctic peninsula region is currently undergoing rapid environmental change resulting in the thinning acceleration and recession of glaciers and the sequential collapse of ice shelves it is important to view these changes in the context of long term palaeoenvironmental complexity and to understand the key processes controlling ice sheet growth and recession in addition numerical ice sheet models require detailed geological data for tuning and testing therefore this paper systematically and holistically reviews published geological evidence for antarctic peninsula ice sheet variability for each key locality throughout the cenozoic and brings together the prevailing consensus of the extent character and behaviour of the glaciations of the antarctic peninsula region major contributions include a downloadable database of 186 terrestrial and marine calibrated dates an original reconstruction of the lgm ice sheet and a new series of isochrones detailing ice sheet retreat following the lgm glaciation of antarctica was initiated around the eocene oligocene transition in east antarctica palaeogene records of antarctic peninsula glaciation are primarily restricted to king george island where glacigenic sediments provide a record of early east antarctic glaciations but with modification of far travelled erratics by local south shetland island ice caps evidence for neogene glaciation is derived primarily from king george island and james ross island where glaciovolcanic strata indicate that ice thicknesses reached 500 850 m during glacials this suggests that the antarctic peninsula ice sheet draped rather than drowned the topography marine geophysical investigations indicate multiple ice sheet advances during this time seismic profiling of continental shelf slope deposits indicates up to ten large advances of the antarctic peninsula ice sheet during the early pleistocene when the ice sheet was dominated by 40 kyr cycles glacials became more pronounced reaching the continental shelf edge and of longer duration during the middle pleistocene during the late pleistocene repeated glacials reached the shelf edge but ice shelves inhibited iceberg rafting the last glacial maximum lgm occurred at 18 ka bp after which transitional glaciomarine sediments on the continental shelf indicate ice sheet retreat the continental shelf contains large bathymetric troughs which were repeatedly occupied by large ice streams during pleistocene glaciations retreat after the lgm was episodic in the weddell sea with multiple readvances and changes in ice flow direction but rapid in the bellingshausen sea the late holocene epoch was characterised by repeated fluctuations in palaeoenvironmental conditions with associated glacial readvances however this has been subsumed by rapid warming and ice shelf collapse during the twentieth century

holocene sediment records from the continental shelf of mac robertson land east antarctica geochemical records are presented for five sediment cores from basins on the continental shelf of mac robertson land east antarctica the cores contain 2 4 m thick sequences of hemipelagic siliceous mud and ooze smo deposited under seasonally open marine conditions the inner and middle shelf smo sequences are massive dark olive green material whereas the outer shelf smo sequences are dark olive material interspersed with light olive green layers 1 10 cm thick the biogenic material is dominated by marine diatoms including fragilariopsis curta fragilariopsis cylindrus and chaetoceros spp in the dark colored smo and corethron criophilum in the light colored layers radiocarbon dates suggest that the cores provide continuous accumulation records extending from 1 kyr before present b p back as far as 4 15 kyr b p with estimated accumulation rates of 0 07 5 mm yr 1 the three core records from the middle and outer shelf suggest six episodes of increased accumulation of biogenic material at 5 5 kyr b p all three cores 1 2 and 6 2 kyr b p two of the three cores and 3 8 and 10 8 kyr b p one core most of which coincide with corethron layers we interpret these features as the result of enhanced diatom production over the outer shelf possibly related to climatic warm periods the absence of such features in the inner shelf core records is thought to reflect a relatively constant level of seasonal diatom production in adjacent waters maintained by a coastal polynya

oxygen isotope δ18o evidence of holocene hydrological changes at signy island maritime antarctica a record of holocene hydrological changes has been produced from variations in oxygen isotope composition delta 18 o preserved in freshwater lake sediments from maritime antarctica small amounts 5 of authigenic carbonate have been extracted from a non marl sediment core from sombre lake signy island 60 degrees 43 s 45 degrees 38 w oxygen isotope and particle size analysis provide a sensitive record of hydrological events in the lake arising from local and regional climate phenomena the climate affects delta o 18 through snowpack volume and glacier activity in the catchment lakewater temperatures the input versus evaporation balance and the duration of seasonal lake ice cover the most depleted negative delta o 18 values are associated with influxes of meltwater at times of glacier advance or retreat enriched positive delta o 18 values occur during more arid warmer conditions with longer periods of open water in summer this isotope record can be used to determine century scale to decadal variability in air circulation and moisture origin strong similarities with other holocene proxy records from the weddell sea and antarctic peninsula region are apparent including the mid holocene climate optimum followed by the neoglacial and most recently late twentieth century climatic warming the oxygen isotope record from sombre lake illustrates the importance of remote islands in contributing to our understanding of teleconnections in atmospheric and oceanographic circulation sea ice extent air temperatures and precipitation in the southern ocean

source mechanisms of volcanic tsunamis volcanic tsunamis are generated by a variety of mechanisms including volcano tectonic earthquakes slope instabilities pyroclastic flows underwater explosions shock waves and caldera collapse in this review we focus on the lessons that can be learnt from past events and address the influence of parameters such as volume flux of mass flows explosion energy or duration of caldera collapse on tsunami generation the diversity of waves in terms of amplitude period form dispersion etc poses difficulties for integration and harmonization of sources to be used for numerical models and probabilistic tsunami hazard maps in many cases monitoring and warning of volcanic tsunamis remain challenging further technical and scientific developments being necessary and must be coupled with policies of population preparedness

magnitude and geographic variation of the radiocarbon content in antarctic marine life implications for reservoir corrections in radiocarbon dating abstract radiocarbon age estimates on marine derined materials from the antarctic appear old in comparison with the terrestrial radiocarbon timescale as a result of significantly depleted 14 c concentrations in antarctic seas we review measurements of 14 c concentrations in modern antarctic marine life from south georgia the shetland islands and antarctic peninsula and suggest correction factors required to relate radiocarbon measurements on fossil marine materials from these areas to the conventional radiocarbon timescale for dates based on shells seaweeds sealbones and penguin bones the minimum correction factor for south georgia is ca 750 years and for the south shetland islands and antarctic peninsula it may be up to 1250 1300 years for whalebones a minimum correction of 1000 years may apply over a wide geographic area for comparison we also review radiocarbon measurements on marine species and seawater from other sectors of the antarctic in high latitudes correction factors of ca 1400 years are generally applicable to shell seal and penguin samples

unstable climate oscillations during the late holocene in the eastern bransfield basin antarctic peninsula core a9 eb2 from the eastern bransfield basin antarctic peninsula consists of pelagic diatom ooze clay couplets and bioturbated diatom ooze and hemipelagic bioturbated mud sediments interbedded with turbidites homogeneous mud and silt clay couplets the cyclic and laminated nature of these pelagic sediments represents alternation between the deposition of diatom rich biogenic sediments and of terrigenous sediments sediment properties and geochemical data explain the contrasting lamination with light layers being finer grained and relatively rich in total organic carbon and biogenic silica content also the high resolution magnetic susceptibility ms variations highlight distinct features high ms values coincide with clastic rich sections and low ms values correspond to biogenic sections the chronology developed for core a9 eb2 accounts for anomalous ages associated with turbidites and shows a linear sedimentation rate of approximately 87 cm 103 yr which is supported by an accumulation rate of 80 cm 103 yr calculated from 210pb activity the late holocene records clearly identify neoglacial events of the little ice age lia and medieval warm period mwp other unexplained climatic events comparable in duration and amplitude to the lia and mwp events also appear in the ms record suggesting intrinsically unstable climatic conditions during the late holocene in the bransfield basin of antarctic peninsula

middle pleistocene sea surface temperature change in the southwest pacific ocean on orbital and suborbital time scales a record of estimated sea surface temperature sst change between 575 and 400 ka has been obtained from planktonic foraminifera at deep sea drilling project site 594 in the southwest pacific ocean the site 594 record indicates that ssts during marine oxygen isotope stage 11 were similar to those of the holocene in contrast to suggestions of warmer than holocene ssts during stage 11 if these ssts reflect global conditions then ice sheet collapse may not require temperatures warmer than in the holocene millennial scale oscillations in sst 3 c occurred within the stage 12 glacial interval spaced every 5 10 k y on time scales similar to those observed within stage 12 in the north atlantic the consistency between these records may require global scale mechanisms capable of producing rapid climate change as suggested for later quaternary intervals

rapid collapse of northern larsen ice shelf antarctica in january 1995 4200 square kilometers of the northern larsen ice shelf antarctic peninsula broke away radar images from the ers 1 satellite complemented by field observations showed that the two northernmost sections of the ice shelf fractured and disintegrated almost completely within a few days this breakup followed a period of steady retreat that coincided with a regional trend of atmospheric warming the observations imply that after an ice shelf retreats beyond a critical limit it may collapse rapidly as a result of perturbated mass balance

the medieval climate anomaly in antarctica abstract the medieval climate anomaly mca is a well recognized climate perturbation in many parts of the world with a core period of 1000 1200 ce here we are mapping the mca across the antarctic region based on the analysis of published palaeotemperature proxy data from 60 sites in addition to the conventionally used ice core data we are integrating temperature proxy records from marine and terrestrial sediment cores as well as radiocarbon ages of glacier moraines and elephant seal colonies a generally warm mca compared to the subsequent little ice age lia was found for the subantarctic islands south of the antarctic convergence the antarctic peninsula victoria land and central west antarctica a somewhat less clear mca warm signal was detected for the majority of east antarctica mca cooling occurred in the ross ice shelf region and probably in the weddell sea and on filchner ronne ice shelf spatial distribution of mca cooling and warming follows modern dipole patterns as reflected by areas of opposing temperature trends main drivers of the multi centennial scale climate variability appear to be the southern annular mode sam and el nino southern oscillation enso which are linked to solar activity changes by nonlinear dynamics

late pleistocene and holocene landscape evolution and environmental change in the lake sulivan area falkland islands south atlantic abstract late pleistocene and holocene landscape evolution around lake sulivan falkland islands south atlantic is assessed using morphological stratigraphical palaeoecological and 14c dating evidence data indicate a complex landscape history involving frost related activity ventifact development growth and degradation of peat terrain expansion and contraction of lakes and the development stabilisation and subsequent reworking of alluvial and aeolian sand bodies late pleistocene cold conditions favoured production of sandy diamicts on hillslopes and ventifacts on outcrops and blockfield clasts lateglacial climatic amelioration was marked by early growth of peat ca 16 500 cal yr bp since then peat accumulation changes in lake areas and depths and alluvial and or aeolian sand deposition have been recurring and dominant features of landscape change which throughout the late pleistocene and early holocene may have been a response to near synchronous climatic fluctuations along the south america antarctica axis marked landscape changes around lake sulivan coincided with intervals of glacier readvance in south america and south georgia at ca 3200 1900 and 700 100 cal yr bp with lower lake levels and aeolian sand transport from exposed lakebeds and shorelines implying greater aridity in the falklands than at present

millennial scale climate changes on south georgia southern ocean abstract the location of south georgia 54 s 36 w makes it a suitable site for the study of the climatic connections between temperate and polar environments in the southern hemisphere because the mass balance of the small cirque glaciers on south georgia primarily responds to changes in summer temperature they can provide records of changes in the south atlantic ocean and atmospheric circulation we use grey scale density weight loss on ignition and grain size analyses to show that the proportion of glacially eroded sediments to organic sediments in block lake was highly variable during the last 7400 cal yr b p we expect that the glacial signal is clearly detectable above noise originating from nonglacial processes and assume that an increase in glacigenic sediment deposition in block lake has followed holocene glacier advances we interpret proglacial lake sediment sequences in terms of summer climate warming and cooling events prominent millennial scale features include cooling events between 7200 and 7000 5200 and 4400 and 2400 and 1600 cal yr b p and after 1000 cal yr b p comparison with other terrestrial and marine records reveals that the south georgian record captures all the important changes in southern hemisphere holocene climate our results reveal a tentative coupling between climate changes in the south atlantic and north atlantic because the documented temperature changes on south georgia are anti phased to those in the north atlantic

a late holocene record of loess deposition in ice wedge polygons reflecting wind activity and ground moisture conditions bylot island eastern canadian arctic on bylot island a field of tundra polygons at the margin of a glacial outwash plain contains a well preserved syngenetic permafrost sequence of ground ice and alternating loess and organic layers that was accumulated during the late holocene periods of increased deposition of loess alternated with periods of growth of bryophytes during the last 3500 years these shifts in soil accretion regime are interpreted in terms of significant shifts of the summer surface wind conditions and active layer moisture regime precipitation evaporation or p e in response to regional climatic variations and recurrent changes of atmospheric circulation there was a high level of variability and large amplitude of the p e regime and summer surface wind conditions on a decennial and secular timescale in general however according to the greenland gisp2 bi decennial oxygen isotopes data there was a low variability and amplitude by a few degrees centigrade or less of the regional mean annual air temperature from 2950 t

hydrography and climate of the last 4400 years in a sw greenland fjord implications for labrador sea palaeoceanography a multiproxy record including benthic foraminifera diatoms and xrf data of a marine sedi ment core from a sw greenland fjord provides a detailed reconstruction of the oceanographic and cli matic variations of the region during the last 4400 cal years the lower part of our record represents the final termination of the holocene thermal maximum after the onset of the neoglaciation at approxi mately 3 2 ka cal bp the fjord system was subject to a number of marked hydrographical changes that were closely linked to the general climatic and oceanographic development of the labrador sea and the north atlantic region our data show that increased advection of atlantic water irminger sea water from the west greenland current into the labrador sea was a typical feature of northeast atlantic cool ing episodes such as the little ice age and the european dark ages while the advection of irminger sea water decreased significantly during warm episodes such as the mediaeval warm period and the roman warm period whereas the mediaeval warm period was characterized by relatively cool climate as suggested by low meltwater production the preceding dark ages display higher meltwater runoff and consequently warmer climate when compared with european climate these regional climate anomalies indicate persisting patterns of advection of colder respectively warmer air masses in the study region dur ing these periods and thus a long term seesaw climate pattern between west greenland and europe

holocene long and short term climate changes off adelie land east antarctica diatom data from a marine sediment core give insight on holocene changes in sea surface conditions and climate at high southern latitudes off adelie land east antarctica the early to mid holocene was warmer than the late holocene with a transition at 4000 calendar years b p sea ice was less present and spring summer growing season was greater during the warm period relative to the cold one thus limiting sea ice diatom production and favoring more open ocean diatom to develop the long term holocene climatic evolution in east antarctica is explained by a combination of a delayed response to local seasonal insolation changes coupled to the long memory of the southern ocean abrupt variations of the diatom relative abundances indicating rapid climate changes are superimposed to the holocene long term trends spectral analyses calculate robust frequencies at 1600 a where a is years 1250 a 1050 a 570 a 310 a 230 a 150 125 a 110 a 90 a and 66 a such periods are very close to solar activity cyclicities except for the periods at 310 a and 1250 a which are close to internal climate variability cyclicities wavelet analyses estimate the same periods but indicate nonstationary cyclicities rapid climate changes at high southern latitudes may therefore be explained by a combination of external solar and internal thermohaline circulation forcings

postglacial marine diatom record of the palmer deep antarctic peninsula odp leg 178 site 1098 1 total diatom abundance 1 late pleistocene to holocene climate variability in the antarctic peninsula is described from ocean drilling program odp leg 178 site 1098 palmer deep using total diatom abundance valves per gram dry sediment as a paleoproductivity proxy diatom frustules are absent in the diamicton at the base of the core which was deposited prior to age calibrated circa 13 2 ka immediately above the diamicton frustules are in low abundance as rare fragments and become increasingly more abundant and well preserved up core a rapid and major increase in productivity after circa 12 8 ka is evident from distinctly laminated sediments that overlie the diamicton the strongly laminated section was deposited during a deglaciation phase that followed the retreat of grounded ice after the last glacial maximum diatom productivity decreased during a climatic cooling and or change in meltwater supply until circa 9 0 ka between 9 0 and 4 4 ka productivity increased steadily again with diatom abundance maxima reached during a mid holocene climatic optimum the optimum is interrupted by a brief cold event of 1000 years duration 6 0 5 0 ka after 4 4 ka productivity generally decreased and the last 500 years have experienced the lowest diatom productivity of the postglacial period the palmer deep sediment is compared to ice core and lake sediment records from other regions around the antarctic peninsula these diverse data sets confirm that the antarctic peninsula has been a region of rapid and variable climate fluctuation since the last glacial maximum

an antarctic circumpolar wave in surface pressure wind temperature and sea ice extent the southern ocean is the only oceanic domain encircling the globe it contains the strong eastward flow of the antarctic circumpolar current and is the unifying link for exchanges of water masses at all depths between the world s major ocean basins1 as these exchanges are an important control on mean global climate the southern ocean is expected to play an important role in transmitting climate anomalies around the globe interannual variability has been often observed at high southern latitudes and observations of sea ice extent suggest that such features propagate eastwards around the southern ocean2 3 here we use data from a variety of observational techniques to identify significant interannual variations in the atmospheric pressure at sea level wind stress sea surface temperature and sea ice extent over the southern ocean these anomalies propagate eastward with the circumpolar flow with a period of 4 5 years and taking 8 10 years to encircle the pole this system of coupled anomalies which we call the antarctic circumpolar wave is likely to play an important role in climate regulation and dynamics both within and beyond the southern ocean

subantarctic peatlands and their potential as palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic archives subantarctic islands are located within the antarctic circumpolar current and the southern westerly wind belt the latter called southern westerlies making them unique terrestrial archives to investigate past changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns in the southern mid latitudes the islands are characterised by a treeless phanerogam poor flora in which bryophytes are of major importance several peat based holocene palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic studies have recently been published for south georgia and ile de la possession iles crozet a range of techniques have been used in these studies mainly plant macrofossil analysis but also analyses of diatoms pollen and non pollen microfossils geochemical and geomagnetic measurements the records are chronologically constrained by radiocarbon dating this paper brings together these data in order to give an overview of the subantarctic peat based palaeoclimatic records a new plant macrofossil record for the island of south georgia is added evidence for millennial scale holocene climate variability was found for both islands of which the most striking one occurred in the late holocene however within the uncertainty of the age depth models the timing for this climate shift to wetter and or colder conditions on south georgia and windier wetter conditions on ile de la possession is different for both islands ile de la possession iles crozet seems to follow the northern hemisphere climate evolution as the event was dated to w2800 cal bp a well known climate event present in many peat based records in north western europe in contrast the south georgian late holocene climate records reveal a shift around w2200e2000 cal bp

new constraints on upper mantle s velocity structure and crustal thickness of the iranian plateau using partitioned waveform inversion summary the continental collision between the african and eurasian plates resulted in a tectonically young and complex deformation in the iranian plateau the present day iranian plateau is characterized by diverse tectonic domains including the continental collisions e g zagros and alborz and the oceanic plate subduction e g makran partitioned waveform inversion method is used here to image the s velocity structure of the upper mantle and moho depth variations in the iranian plateau of nearly 3000 waveforms originally selected for the analysis we have fitted 974 waveforms from 101 events and 39 stations which result in 11 688 linear constraints on the upper mantle s velocity structure and moho depth for the region our new seismic images show seismically faster upper mantle beneath the zagros and the arabian plate compared to the central iran and alborz this high velocity anomaly has descended beneath the central iran along the main zagros thrust across the zagros collision zone the tomographic images show a slab stagnation in the transition zone at about 410 km depth in the form of a horizontal high velocity zone which does not penetrate the deeper parts of the mantle the lowest s velocities are concentrated beneath the central iran and alborz according to our velocity models a strong high velocity anomaly is resolved beneath the trapped south caspian basin with clear indication of westward underthrusting beneath the talesh and western alborz in makran southeast iran there is a clear evidence of subduction of oceanic crust of the arabian plate beneath the makran belt which is correlated with seismicity pattern across the makran zone also the inverted moho map using a priori information of crustal thickness constraints shows the large crustal thickness beneath the zagros suture zone in some places to a maximum depth of 65 km which indicates the influence of crustal thickening and shortening beneath arabian eurasian plate boundary a significantly crustal thinning is observable across the south caspian basin compared to its margins

ice core evidence for secular variability and 200 year dipolar oscillations in atmospheric circulation over east antarctica during the holocene two holocene ice core records from east antarctica vostok and epica dome c were analysed for dust concentration and size distribution at a temporal resolution of 1 sample per 50 years a series of volcanic markers randomly distributed over the common part of the ice cores from 9 8 to 3 5 kyear bp ensures accurate relative dating 33 years dust size records from the two sites display oscillations structured in cycles with sub millennial and secular scale frequencies that are apparently asynchronous the power spectra of the composite sum of the two dust size records display spectral energy mostly for 150 to 500 year periodicities on the other hand the 200 year band is common to both records and the 200 year components of the two sites are out of phase 100 year lead or lag over 5 5 kyear a phenomenon also reflected by a significant 99 conf lev band in the power spectra of the composite difference of the two size records during long range transport mineral dust originating from the southern hemisphere continents is graded to a variable extent depending on the altitude and duration of atmospheric transport relatively coarse dust is associated with air mass penetration from the middle lower troposphere and conversely relatively fine dust with upper troposphere air masses or the influence of subsidence over the antarctic plateau a hypothesis already proposed for the changes that occurred during the last glacial maximum to holocene transition delmonte et al 2004b moreover we assume that the overall fluctuation of air mass advection over antarctica depends on the meridional pressure gradient with respect to low latitudes i e the antarctic oscillation aao we therefore suggest a regional variability in atmospheric circulation over east antarctica the 150 500 year power spectrum of the composite parameter represents the long term variability of the aao imprinted by secular internal oscillations probably related to the southern ocean climatic system on the other hand the dust composite parameter suggests a persistent atmospheric dipole over east antarctica delivering coarser finer dust particles alternatively to vostok and dome c regions with a bi centennial periodicity indeed a seesaw phenomenon in dust size distribution was already observed at three east antarctic sites during the last deglaciation delmonte et al 2004b and was interpreted as a progressive reduction of the eccentricity of the polar vortex with respect to the geographic south pole interestingly the parameter shows a pronounced 200 year oscillation mode throwing new light on the unresolved question of a possible relationship between climate and solar activity

postglacial marine diatom record of the palmer deep antarctic peninsula odp leg 178 site 1098 2 diatom assemblages 1 the distribution of late pleistocene to holocene diatom assemblages from ocean drilling program odp leg 178 site 1098 palmer deep is described and compared using multivariate statistical methods cluster analysis and analysis of variance five assemblages are identified from site 1098 which are correlated with the climatic zones identified previously in the palmer deep domack et al 2001 a thalassiosira diatom assemblage characterizes the deglaciation phase 13 2 11 0 ka and was deposited during glacial retreat at the end of the regional last glacial maximum a well preserved rhizosolenia assemblage was deposited during a climatic reversal 11 0 9 0 ka and indicates periods of seasonally open water with diatom blooms an open water fragilariopsis kerguelensis assemblage characterizes the mid holocene climatic optimum 9 0 3 7 ka in the neoglacial late holocene 3 7 ka climatic cooling increased sea ice cover and increased wind are inferred from a cocconeis assemblage during the climatic optimum neoglacial transition 4 4 1 8 ka laminae characterized by corethron criophilum were preserved it is uncertain whether the laminae represent short lived interannual bloom events with high settling rates or have been deposited over longer time periods

glaciomarine sedimentation and its paleoceanographic implications along the fjord margins in the south shetland islands antarctica during the last 6000 years abstract two 3 m long cores were collected from maxwell and admiralty bays on king george island one of the south shetland islands west antarctica these cores were examined for their benthic foraminifer globocassidulina biora 18o and 13c records diatom abundance counts and biogenic constituents carbon and silica these high resolution data were used to reconstruct the paleoceanography of the bays and to link the marine record with deglaciation of the south shetland islands ice cap in maxwell bay extremely low diatom abundance the depletion of total organic carbon toc and biogenic silica biosi and enriched 18o between 6200 and 4000 bp indicate that this period was characterized by cold conditions with deposition of waterlain till unit 1 just seaward of the grounding line low sedimentation limitation of primary production on surface water and lack of meltwater supply deglaciation along the maxwell bay margin was dated from about 4000 bp until at least 2700 bp with increasing toc biosi and diatom abundance and decreasing the c n ratio up core at this time subglacial meltwater streams began to emanate from the glacier front sediment laden meltwater plumes from these streams deposited interlaminated sand and mud unit 2 in the ice proximal zone deglaciation was followed by marked climatic warming at around 2700 bp with evidence of toc and biosi maxima depleted 18o and markedly increased diatom valves with further glacier recession diatomaceous pebbly mud unit 3 was deposited in open marine conditions a large influx of organic materials by enhanced production during this period caused both rapid depletion of caco3 in sediment and resulted in marked increase in sedimentation since 2700 bp at 200 m water depth along the maxwell bay margin core s 19 in contrast the shallower platform along the admiralty bay margin core s 2 was deglaciated later about 1900 bp that is 2000 years after the maxwell bay margin this is possible as core s 19 is situated 200 m water depth more distal to the fjord head glacier while core s 2 in admiralty bay lies on a shallower platform

holocene climate and glacial history of the northeastern antarctic peninsula the marine sedimentary record from a long shaldril core abstract a high resolution record of holocene deglacial and climate history was obtained from a 77 m sediment core from the firth of tay antarctic peninsula as part of the shaldril initiative this study provides a detailed sedimentological record of holocene paleoclimate and glacial advance and retreat from the eastern side of the peninsula a robust chronostratigraphy was derived from thirty three radiocarbon dates on carbonate material this chronostratigraphic framework was used to establish the timing of glacial and climate events derived from multiple proxies including magnetic susceptibility electric resistivity porosity ice rafted debris content organic carbon content nitrogen content biogenic silica content and diatom and foraminiferal assemblages the core bottomed out in a stiff diamicton interpreted as till gravelly and sandy mud above the till is interpreted as proximal glaciomarine sediment that represents decoupling of the glacier from the seafloor circa 9400 cal yr bp and its subsequent landward retreat this was approximately 5000 yr later than in the bransfield basin and south shetland islands on the western side of the peninsula the firth of tay core site remained in a proximal glaciomarine setting until 8300 cal yr bp at which time significant glacial retreat took place deposition of diatomaceous glaciomarine sediments after 8300 cal yr bp indicates that an ice shelf has not existed in the area since this time the onset of seasonally open marine conditions between 7800 and 6000 cal yr bp followed the deglacial period and is interpreted as the mid holocene climatic optimum open marine conditions lasted until present with a minor cooling having occurred between 6000 and 4500 cal yr bp and a period of minor glacial retreat and or decreased sea ice coverage between 4500 and 3500 cal yr bp finally climatic cooling and variable sea ice cover occurred from 3500 cal yr bp to near present and it is interpreted as being part of the neoglacial the onset of the neoglacial appears to have occurred earlier in the firth of tay than on the western side of the antarctic peninsula the medieval warm period and little ice age were not pronounced in the firth of tay the breadth and synchroneity of the rapid regional warming and glacial retreat observed in the antarctic peninsula during the last century appear to be unprecedented during the holocene epoch

complexity of holocene climate as reconstructed from a greenland ice core glaciochemical time series developed from summit greenland indicate that the chemical composition of the atmosphere was dynamic during the holocene epoch concentrations of sea salt and terrestrial dusts increased in summit snow during the periods 0 to 600 2400 to 3100 5000 to 6100 7800 to 8800 and more than 11 300 years ago the most recent increase and also the most abrupt coincides with the little ice age these changes imply that either the north polar vortex expanded or the meridional air flow intensified during these periods and that temperatures in the mid to high northern latitudes were potentially the coldest since the younger dryas event

recent atmospheric warming and retreat of ice shelves on the antarctic peninsula in 1978 mercer1 discussed the probable effects of climate warming on the antarctic ice sheet predicting that one sign of a warming trend in this region would be the retreat of ice shelves on the antarctic peninsula analyses of 50 year meteorological records have since revealed atmospheric warming on the antarctic peninsula2 3 and a number of ice shelves have retreated4 8 here we present time series of observations of the areal extent of nine ice shelves on the antarctic peninsula showing that five northerly ones have retreated dramatically in the past fifty years while those further south show no clear trend comparison with airtemperature data shows that the pattern and magnitude of ice shelf retreat is consistent with the existence of an abrupt thermal limit on iceshelf viability the isotherm associated with this limit having been driven south by the atmospheric warming ice shelves therefore appear to be sensitive indicators of climate change

timing of the most recent neoglacial advance and retreat in the south shetland islands antarctic peninsula insights from raised beaches and holocene uplift rates abstract the timing of the most recent neoglacial advance in the antarctic peninsula is important for establishing global climate teleconnections and providing important post glacial rebound corrections to gravity based satellite measurements of ice loss however obtaining accurate ages from terrestrial geomorphic and sedimentary indicators of the most recent neoglacial advance in antarctica has been hampered by the lack of historical records and the difficulty of dating materials in antarctica here we use a new approach to dating flights of raised beaches in the south shetland islands of the northern antarctic peninsula to bracket the age of a neoglacial advance that occurred between 1500 and 1700 ad broadly synchronous with compilations for the timing of the little ice age in the northern hemisphere our approach is based on optically stimulated luminescence of the underside of buried cobbles to obtain the age of beaches previously shown to have been deposited immediately inside and outside the moraines of the most recent neoglacial advance in addition these beaches mark the timing of an apparent change in the rate of isostatic rebound thought to be in response to the same glacial advance within the south shetland islands we use a maxwell viscoelastic model of glacial isostatic adjustment gia to determine whether the rates of uplift calculated from the raised beaches are realistic given the limited constraints on the ice advance during this most recent neoglacial advance our rebound model suggests that the subsequent melting of an additional 16 22 increase in the volume of ice within the south shetland islands would result in a subsequent uplift rate of 12 5 mm yr that lasted until 1840 ad resulting in a cumulative uplift of 2 5 m this uplift rate and magnitude are in close agreement with observed rates and magnitudes calculated from the raised beaches since the most recent neoglacial advance along the south shetland islands and falls within the range of uplift rates from similar settings such as alaska

rock magnetic carriers of century scale susceptibility cycles in glacial marine sediments from the palmer deep antarctic peninsula abstract a 4200 year long magnetic susceptibility profile from the palmer deep records century and millennial scale variability in paleoenvironmental conditions along the western antarctic peninsula the susceptibility profile shows regularly spaced highs and lows over the last 3360 years b p then drops to uniformly low values these features are formed by the variable dilution of terrigenous material with biogenic sediments and shifts in magnetic mineralogy high susceptibility intervals are characterized by multi domain md pure magnetite low susceptibility intervals are characterized by pseudo single domain psd magnetite and titanomagnetite prior to 3360 years b p the magnetic mineral assemblage is dominated by fine psd titanium rich titanomagnetite and superparamagnetic particles suggesting a change in sediment provenance and or sediment transport processes the absence of md magnetite suggests a cessation in locally derived ice rated debris this horizon represents the transition from the mid holocene climatic optimum to the neoglacial period marked by an increase in glacial sedimentation

pre bomb radiocarbon and the reservoir correction for calcareous marine species in the southern ocean four antarctic marine mollusc shells which were collected alive between 1917 and 1940 were analyzed by accelerator mass spectrometry to provide the first pre bomb radiocarbon measurements of biogenic carbonates from the southern ocean after correcting for the impact of fossil fuel combustion suess effect radiocarbon activities of the pre bomb shells averaged 149 8 10 4 in contrast the 14c values for post bomb molluscs echinoderms brachiopods and foraminifera averaged 96 1 25 2 these biogenic carbonate 14c values are nearly identical to pre bomb estimates 148 to 152 and post bomb measurements 98 4 22 0 of the surface waters in the southern ocean average radiocarbon ages of the biogenic carbonates before and after 1950 1303 84 years and 811 205 years respectively along with those from seals and penguins indicate that the antarctic marine radiocarbon reservoir has decreased in age by nearly 500 years during the second half of the 20th century marine species and seawater measurements firmly place the radiocarbon reservoir correction at 1300 100 years for calcareous marine fossils which are widespread abundant and well preserved organic materials for interpreting ice sheet climate and sea level impacts on the antarctic marine ecosystem during the holocene

late holocene sea surface temperature and precipitation variability in northern patagonia chile jacaf fjord 44 s abstract a high resolution multi proxy study including the elemental and isotopic composition of bulk organic matter land plant derived biomarkers and alkenone based sea surface temperature sst from a marine sedimentary record obtained from the jacaf fjord in northern chilean patagonia 44 20 s provided a detailed reconstruction of continental runoff precipitation and summer sst spanning the last 1750 yr we observed two different regimes of climate variability in our record a relatively dry warm period before 900 cal yr bp lower runoff and average sst 1 c warmer than present day and a wet cold period after 750 cal yr bp higher runoff and average sst 1 c colder than present day relatively colder ssts were found during 750 600 and 450 250 cal yr bp where the latter period roughly corresponds to the interval defined for the little ice age lia similar climatic swings have been observed previously in continental and marine archives of the last two millennia from central and southern chile suggesting a strong latitudinal sensitivity to changes in the southern westerly winds the main source of precipitation in southern chile and validating the regional nature of the lia our results reveal the importance of the chilean fjord system for recording climate changes of regional and global significance

waveform inversion for three dimensional density and s wave structure long period seismic data longer than about 100 s are sensitive to density as well as p wave and s wave structure in the earth seismograms containing overtone and fundamental mode signals are inverted directly for density and s wave velocity structure a simple relation between p wave and s wave velocity perturbations is assumed in order to reduce the number of unknowns a model is parameterized by spherical harmonics up to degree and order 8 and by five knots in depth at 30 220 450 670 and 882 km with linear interpolation between adjacent knots density resolution is good only at shallow depths in fact only the average in the upper 200 km is marginally resolved s wave resolution is generally good throughout the depth range s wave results show good correlation to surface geological features and are similar to previous studies density results show quite different patterns from s wave maps high density regions appear along the subduction zones surrounding the pacific ocean and low density regions appear in most major continents most continents have low density and high s wave velocity which suggests that continental mantle consists of compositionally different materials since thermal effects can never produce such perturbations high s wave velocity also suggests a relatively cold geotherm for continents and thus continents should consist of significantly low density material such as depleted mantle rocks as proposed by many researchers before the density map also correlates well with a geoid map for spherical harmonic components l 4 6 but not for l 2 3 it suggests that sources for these geoid undulations l 4 6 are in the upper mantle probably in the upper 300 400 km but those for l 2 3 are in deeper regions

diatom evidence of hydrographic changes and ice conditions in igaliku fjord south greenland during the past 1500 years biostratigraphic diatom analyses were carried out on two sediment cores from igaliku fjord south greenland in order to reconstruct hydrographic and climatic fluctuations during the late holocene ad 550 to present pronounced differences in hydrographic setting of the coring sites provide palaeoenvironmental information of both local and more regional character five diatom zones were identified from the subfossil diatom records each describing a hydrographic setting two major climate periods the mediaeval warm period ad 800 1250 and the little ice age ad 1580 1850 that were separated by a variable transitional period were recognized prior to these periods a cold and presumably moist climate regime prevailed between ad 500 and 700 cooling events were identified during the mediaeval warm period in the period ad 960 to 1140 the diatom data demonstrate that marked hydrographic changes occurred in the course of a relatively short timespan beginning at about ad 1300 and culminating around

chronology of the palmer deep site antarctic peninsula a holocene palaeoenvironmental reference for the circum antarctic palmer deep sediment cores are used to produce the first high resolution continuous late pleistocene to holocene time series from the antarctic marine system the sedimentary record is dated using accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon methods on acid insoluble organic matter and foraminiferal calcite fifty four radiocarbon analyses are utilized in the dating which provides a calibrated timescale back to 13 ka bp reliability of resultant ages on organic matter is assured because duplicates produce a standard deviation from the surface age of less than laboratory error i e 50 years in addition surface organic matter ages at the site are in excellent agreement with living calcite ages at the accepted reservoir age of 1260 years for the antarctic peninsula spectral analyses of the magnetic susceptibility record against the age model reveal unusually strong periodicity in the 400 200 and 50 70 year frequency bands similar to other high resolution records from the holocene but so far unique f

a 20 000 year record of ocean circulation and climate change from the santa barbara basin much of the evidence for climate driven fluctuations in ocean circulation during the past 20 000 years has come from studies of the north atlantic region1 6 the extent to which such interactions have occurred in other ocean basins and any associated teleconnec tions between basins is poorly understood here we present high resolution palaeoclimate and palaeoceanographic records from a 20 000 year sedimentary sequence from the santa barbara basin on the eastern margin of the north pacific ocean the sequence shows oscillations of the benthic environment between low oxygen conditions laminated sediments during periods of warm climate and higher oxygen conditions non laminated bioturbated sediments during cool intervals age differences between coexisting benthic and planktonic foraminifers indicate climate related changes in the age and source and hence oxygen content of basin bottom waters relatively young bottom waters are associated with the cooler intervals and are considered to reflect high proportions of intermediate waters derived from proximal sources conversely older bottom waters are associated with the warmer intervals and were derived from more distal sources these climate driven variations in ocean circulation appear to be synchronous with the main ocean climate fluctuations in the north atlantic region1 6 suggesting that a tight coupling mechanism operates between the two basins

holocene climate variability in antarctica based on 11 ice core isotopic records a comparison is made of the holocene records obtained from water isotope measurements along 11 ice cores from coastal and central sites in east antarctica vostok dome b plateau remote komsomolskaia dome c taylor dome dominion range d47 km105 and law dome and west antarctica byrd with temporal resolution from 20 to 50 yr the long term trends possibly reflect local ice sheet elevation fluctuations superimposed on common climatic fluctuations all the records confirm the widespread antarctic early holocene optimum between 11 500 and 9000 yr in the ross sea sector a secondary optimum is identified between 7000 and 5000 yr whereas all eastern antarctic sites show a late optimum between 6000 and 3000 yr superimposed on the long time trend all the records exhibit 9 aperiodic millennial scale oscillations climatic optima show a reduced pacing between warm events typically 800 yr whereas cooler periods are associated with less frequent warm events pacing 1200 yr

late holocene glacier reconstruction reveals retreat behind present limits and two stage little ice age on subantarctic south georgia observational data show that climate in the southern ocean region is rapidly changing however past the instrumental period our understanding of climate variability in the region is limited by a scarcity of highresolution palaeoclimate records alpine glaciers present on many southern ocean islands may provide such data because changes in their mass balance extent and erosion rates often mark a response to climate shifts rock flour the fine grained fraction of the glacial erosion process is suspended in meltwater streams and transferred into the sediments of downstream lakes continuously recording glacier variations here we utilize this relationship to present a reconstruction of the late holocene glacier history of subantarctic south georgia using sediments from the glacier fed middle hamberg lake to fingerprint a glacial erosion size signal we used titanium counts validated against changes in sediment density and grain size allowing a continuous reconstruction of glacier variations over the past similar to 1250 years together with local moraine evidence and supporting evidence from other southern hemisphere glaciers on new zealand and in patagonia our findings reveal a series of consecutively diminishing late holocene advances in addition to a glacier maximum before 1250 cal a bp these include a twostage litle ice age with advances around 300 and 120 cal a bp in line with evidence from southern patagonia in addition we present evidence for an unreported retreat behind present limits around 500 cal bp

changes in atmospheric circulation and ocean ice cover over the north atlantic during the last 41 000 years high resolution continuous multivariate chemical records from a central greenland ice core provide a sensitive measure of climate change and chemical composition of the atmosphere over the last 41 000 years these chemical series reveal a record of change in the relative size and intensity of the circulation system that transported air masses to greenland defined here as the polar circulation index pci and in the extent of ocean ice cover massive iceberg discharge events previously defined from the marine record are correlated with notable expansions of ocean ice cover and increases in pci during stadials without discharge events ocean ice cover appears to reach some common maximum level the massive aerosol loadings and dramatic variations in ocean ice cover documented in ice cores should be included in climate modeling

antarctic holocene climate change a benthic foraminiferal stable isotope record from palmer deep the first moderate to high resolution holocene marine stable isotope record from the nearshore antarctic continental shelf ocean drilling program odp hole 1098b suggests sensitivity of the western antarctic peninsula hydrography to westerly wind strength and el nino southern oscillation enso like climate variability despite proximity to corrosive antarctic water masses sufficient caco3 in palmer deep sediments exists to provide a high quality stable isotopic record especially in the late holocene coherence of benthic foraminifer delta 18 o delta 13 c sedimentologic and caco3 fluctuations suggests that rapid 20 years palmer deep bottom water temperature fluctuations of 1d 1 5dc are associated with competitive interactions between two dominant oceanographic climatic states an abrupt shift from a warmer stable upper circumpolar deep water ucdw state to a cooler variable shelf water state occurred at s3 6 ka palmer deep bottom waters oscillated between ucdw and shelf water dominated states between s3 6 and 0 05 ka cool shelf water intervals correlate with neoglacial events the most recent and largest being the little ice age lia s0 7 0 2 ka similarities between palmer deep and global holocene records and the rapidity of inferred bottom water fluctuations suggest that western antarctic peninsula shelf hydrography has not been controlled by thermohaline reorganizations but by variable strength and or position of the southern hemisphere westerly wind field we suggest that these atmospheric perturbations may have originated in the low latitude tropical pacific

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

bi polar ocean linkages evidence from late holocene antarctic marine and greenland ice core records a continuous 14c dated palaeoenvironmental 4000 year proxy from the antarctic peninsula glacial marine record demonstrates pronounced cycles of elevated palaeoproductivity warm events that rec