References

CPD

Climate of the Past Discussions

CPD

1814-9359

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/cpd-3-575-2007

The EDC3 chronology for the EPICA Dome C ice core

Parrenin

¹ Barnola

J.-M.

¹ Beer

² Blunier

³ Castellano

⁴ Chappellaz

¹ Dreyfus

⁵ Fischer

⁶ Fujita

⁷ Jouzel

⁵ Kawamura

⁸ Lemieux-Dudon

¹ Loulergue

¹ Masson-Delmotte

⁵ Narcisi

⁹ Petit

J.-R.

¹ Raisbeck

¹⁰ Raynaud

¹ Ruth

⁶ Schwander

³ Severi

⁴ Spahni

³ Steffensen

J. P.

¹¹ Svensson

¹¹ Udisti

⁴ Waelbroeck

¹ Wolff

¹²

Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement, CNRS and Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France

Department of Surface Waters, EAWAG, Dübendorf, Switzerland

Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Department of Chemistry, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL/CEA/CNRS/UVSQ, Gif-Sur-Yvette, France

Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

National Institute of Polar Research, Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), Tokyo, Japan

Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

ENEA, C. R. Casaccia, Roma, Italy

CSNSM/IN2P3/CNRS, Orsay, France

Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK

12 03 2007

3 2 575 606

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article is available from http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/3/575/2007/cpd-3-575-2007.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/3/575/2007/cpd-3-575-2007.pdf

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

References 1

Andersen, K. K., Svensson, A., Johnsen, S. J., Rasmussen, S. O., Bigler, M., Röthlisberger, R., Ruth, U., Siggaard-Andersen, M.-L., Steffensen, J. P., Dahl-Jensen, D., Vinther, B. M. and Clausen, H. B: The Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005, 15-42 kyr. Part 1: Constructing the time scale, Quat. Sci. Rev., 25, 3246–3257, 2006.

Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A., Gilmour, M., Matthews, A., and Hawkesworth, C. J: Sea-land oxygen isotopic relationships from planktonic foraminifera and speleothems in the Eastern Mediterranean region and their implication for paleorainfall during interglacial intervals, Chem. Geol., 67, 3181–3199, 2003.

Bassinot, F. C., Labeyrie, L. D., Vincent, E., Quidelleur, X., Shackleton, N. J., and Lancelot, Y: The astronomical theory of climate and the age of the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic reversal, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 126(1–3), 91–108, 1994.

Bender, M. L: Orbital tuning chronology for the Vostok climate record supported by trapped gas composition, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 204, 275–289, 2002.

Björck, S., Walker, M. J., Cwynar, L. C., Johnsen, S., Knudsen, K.-L., Lowe, J. J., Wohlfarth, B. ,and intimate members: An event stratigraphy for the Last Termination in the North Atlantic region based on the Greenland ice-core record: A proposal by the INTIMATE group, J. Quat. Sci., 13(4), 283–292, 1998.

Blunier, T., Chappellaz, J., Schwander, J., Dällenbach, A., Stauffer, B., Stocker, T., Raynaud, D., Jouzel, J., Clausen, H., Hammer, C., and Johnsen, S: Asynchrony of Antarctic and Greenland climate change during the last glacial period, Nature, 394(6695), 739–743, 1998.

Brown, L. L., Singer, B. S., Pickens, J. C. and Jicha, B. R: Paleomagnetic directions and $^Ar$/$^39$Ar ages from the Tatara-San Pedro volcanic complex, Chilean Andes: Lava record of a Matuyama-Brunhes precursor?, J. Geophys. Res. (Solid Earth), 109(B12), B12101, doi:10.1029/2004JB003007, 2004.

Castellano, E., Becagli, S., Hansson, M., Hutterli, M., Petit, J. R., Rampino, M. R., Severi, M., Steffensen, J. P., Traversi, R., and Udisti, R: Holocene volcanic history as recorded in the sulfate stratigraphy of the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C (EDC96) ice core, J. Geophys. Res., 116, D06114, doi:10.1029/2004JD005259, 2005.

Coe, R. S., Singer, B. S., Pringle, M. S., and Zhao, X: Matuyama-Brunhes reversal and Kamikatsura event on Maui: paleomagnetic directions, $^40$Ar/$^39$Ar ages and implications, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 222, 667–684, 2004.

Ekaykin, A. A., Lipenkov, V. Y., Barkov, N. I., Petit, J.-R., and Masson-Delmotte, V: Spatial and temporal variability in isotope composition of recent snow in the vicinity of Vostok station, Antarctica: implications for ice-core record interpretation, Ann. Glaciol., 35, 181–186, 2002.

EPICA community members: One-to-one coupling of glacial climate variability in Greenland and Antarctica, Nature, 444, 195–198, 2006.

EPICA community members: 8 glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core, Nature, 429, 623–628, 2004.

Fairbanks, R. G., Mortlock, R. A., Chiu, T.-C., Cao, L., Kaplan, A., Guilderson, T. P., Fairbanks, T. W., Bloom, A. L., Grootes, P. M., and Nadeau, M.-J: Radiocarbon calibration curve spanning 0 to 50 000 years BP based on paired $^230$Th/ $^234$U/ $^238$U and $^14$C dates on pristine corals, Quat. Sci. Rev., 24, 1781–1796, 2005.

Genty, D., Blamart, D., Ouhadi, R., Gilmour, M., Baker, A., Jouzel, J., and Van-Exter, S: Precise dating of Dansgaard-Oeschger climate oscillations in western Europe from stalagmite data, Nature, 421, 833–837, 2003.

Goujon, C., Barnola, J.-M., and Ritz, C: Modeling the densification of polar firn including heat diffusion: application to close-off characteristics and gas isotopic fractionation for Antarctica and Greenland sites, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D24), ACL10/1-10, 2003.

Guillou, H., Singer, B. S., Laj, C., Kissel, C., Scaillet, S., and Jicha, B. R: On the age of the Laschamp geomagnetic excursion, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 227, 331–343, 2004.

Henderson, G. M: Caving In to New Chronologies, Science, 313, 620–622, 2006.

Henderson, G. M. and Slowey, N. C: Evidence from U-Th dating against northern hemisphere forcing of the penultimate deglaciation, \textitNature, 404(6773), 61-66, 2000.

Hughen, K., Lehman, S., Southon, J., Overpeck, J., Marchal, O., Herring, C. and Turnbull, J: $^14$C activity and global carbon cycle changes over the past 50 000 years, Science, 303, 202–205, 2004.

Jouzel, J., Vaikmae, R., Petit, J., Martin, M., Duclos, Y., Stievenard, M., Lorius, C., Toots, M., Mélières, M., Burckle, L., Barkov, N., and Kotlyakov, V: The two-step shape and timing of the last deglaciation in antarctica, Clim. Dyn., 11, 151–161, 1995.

Jouzel, J., Masson, V., Cattani, O., Falourd, S., Stievenard, M., Stenni, B., Longinelli, A., Johnsen, S., Steffenssen, J., Petit, J., Schwander, J., Souchez, R., and Barkov, N. I: A new 27 kyr high resolution East Antarctic climate record, Geophys. Res. Let, 28(16), 3199–3202, 2001.

Laskar, J: The chaotic motion of the solar system: a numerical estimate of the size of the chaotic zones, Icarus, 88, 266–291, 1990.

Lisiecki, L. E. and Raymo, M. E: A Plio-Pleistocene Stack of 57 Globally Distributed Benthic $\delta ^18$O Records, Paleoceanography, 20(1), PA1003, doi:10.1029/2004PA001071, 2005.

Martinson, D. G., Pisias, N. G., Hays, J. D., Imbrie, J., Moore, T. C., and Shackleton, N. J: Age dating and the orbital theory of the ice ages: development of a high-resolution 0–300 000 years chronostratigraphy, Quat. Res., 27, 1–30, 1987.

Monnin, E., Indermuhle, A., Dallenbach, A., Fluckiger, J., Stauffer, B., Stocker, T. F., Raynaud, D., and Barnola, J.-M: Atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations over the last glacial termination, Science, 291(5501), 112–114, 2001.

Narcisi, B., Petit, J. R., Delmonte, B., Basile-Doelsch, I., and Maggi, V: Characteristics and sources of tephra layers in the EPICA-Dome C ice record (East Antarctica): Implications for past atmospheric circulation and ice core stratigraphic correlations [rapid communication], Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 239, 253–265, 2005.

Narcisi, B., Petit, J.-R., and Tiepolo, M: A volcanic marker (92 kyr) for dating deep East Antarctic cores, Quat. Sci. Rev., 25, 2682–2687, 2006.

NorthGRIP project members: High-resolution record of Northern Hemisphere climate extending into the last interglacial period, Nature, 431, 147–151, 2004.

Parrenin, F., Remy, F., Ritz, C., Siegert, M., and Jouzel, J: New modelling of the Vostok ice flow line and implication for the glaciological chronology of the Vostok ice core, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D20102, doi:10.1029/2004JD004561, 2004.

Petit, J. R., Jouzel, J., Raynaud, D., Barkov, N. I., Barnola, J.-M., Basile, I., Bender, M., Chappellaz, J., Devis, M., Delaygue, G., Delmotte, M., Kotlyakov, V. M., Legrand, M., Lipenkov, V. Y., Lorius, C., Pepin, L., Ritz, C., Saltzman, E., and Stievenard, M: Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420 000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica, Nature, 399(6735), 429–436, 1999.

Raisbeck, G. M., Yiou, F., Bard, E., Dollfus, D., Jouzel, J., and Petit, J. R: Absolute dating of the last 7000 years of the Vostok ice core using $^10$Be, Mineral. Mag., 62A, 1228–1228, 1998.

Raisbeck, G. M., Yiou, F., Cattani, O., and Jouzel, J: $^10$Be evidence for the Matuyama-Brunhes geomagnetic reversal in the EPICA Dome C ice core, Nature, 444(7115), 82–84, 2006.

Raisbeck, G., Yiou, F. and Jouzel, J: Cosmogenic $^10$Be as a high resolution correlation tool for climate records, \textitGeochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta, 66(15A), A623, 2002.

Rasmussen, S. O., Andersen, K. K., Svensson, A. M., Steffensen, J. P., Vinther, B. M., Clausen, H. B., Siggaard-Andersen, M.-L., Johnsen, S. J., Larsen, L. B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Bigler, M., Rothlisberger, R., Fischer, H., Goto-Azuma, K., Hansson, M. E., and Ruth, U: A new Greenland ice core chronology for the last glacial termination, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D06102, doi:10.1029/2005JD006079, 2006.

Reimer, P., Baillie, M., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J., Bertrand, C., Blackwell, P., Buck, C., Burr, G., Cutler, K., Damon, P., Edwards, R., Fairbanks, R., Friedrich, M., Guilderson, T., Hogg, A., Hughen, K., Kromer, B., McCormac, G., Manning, S., Ramsey, C., Reimer, R., Remmele, S., Southon, J., Stuiver, M., Talamo, S., Taylor, F., van der Plicht, J., and Weyhenmeyer, C: IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 cal kyr BP, RADIOCARBON, 46(3), 1029–1058, 2004.

Schulz, M.: On the 1470-year pacing of Dansgaard-Oeschger warm events, Paleoceanography, 17(2), 1014, doi:10.1029/2000PA000571, 2002.

Schwander, J., Jouzel, J., Hammer, C. U., Petit, J.-R., Udisti, R. and Wolff, E: A tentative chronology for the EPICA Dome Concordia ice core, \textitGeophys. Res. Lett., 28(22), 4243-4246, 2001.

Severinghaus, J. P. and Brook, E. J: Abrupt climate change at the end of the last glacial period inferred from trapped air in polar ice, Science, 286, 930–934, 1999.

Shackleton, N. J: The 100 000-year ice-age cycle identified and found to lag temperature, carbon dioxide, and orbital eccentricity, tScience, 289(5486), 1897–1902, 2000.

Siegenthaler, U., Stocker, T., Monnin, E., Luthi, D., Schwander, J., Stauffer, B., Raynaud, D., Barnola, J.-M., Fischer, H., Masson-Delmotte, V., and Jouzel, J: Stable Carbon Cycle-Climate Relationship During the Late Pleistocene, Science, 310, 1313–1317, 2005.

Spahni, R., Chappellaz, J., Stocker, T., Loulergue, L., Hausammann, G., Kawamura, K., Flückiger, J., Schwander, J., Raynaud, D., Masson-Delmotte, V., and Jouzel, J: Atmospheric Methane and Nitrous Oxide of the Late Pleistocene from Antarctic Ice Cores,Science, 310, 1317–1321, 2005.

Svensson, A., Andersen, K. K., Bigler, M., Clausen, H. B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Davies, S. M., Johnsen, S. J., Muscheler, R., Rasmussen, S. O., Röthlisberger, R., Steffensen, J. P., and Vinther, B. M: The Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005, 15–42 kyr. Part 2: Comparison to other records, Quat. Sci. Rev., 25, 3258–3267, 2006.

Tauxe, L., Herbert, T., Shackleton, N. J. and Kok, Y. S: Astronomical calibration of the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary: Consequences for magnetic remanence acquisition in marine carbonates and the Asian loess sequences, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 140, 133–146, 1996.

Traufetter, F., Oerter, H., Fischer, H., Weller, R., and Miller, H: Spatio-temporal variability in volcanic sulphate deposition over the past 2 kyr in snow pits and firn cores from Amundsenisen, Antarctica, J. Glaciol., 50(168), 137–146, 2004.

Udisti, R., Becagli, S., Castellano, E., Delmonte, B., Jouzel, J., Petit, J.-R., Schwander, J., Stenni, B., and Wolff, E. W.: Stratigraphic correlations between the EPICA-Dome C and Vostok ice cores showing the relative variations of snow accumulation over the past 45 kyr, J. Geophys. Res., 109(D8), D08101, doi:10.1029/2003JD004180, 2004.

Vinther, B. M., Clausen, H. B., Johnsen, S. J., Rasmussen, S. O., Andersen, K. K., Buchardt, S. L., Dahl-Jensen, D., Seierstad, I. K., Siggaard-Andersen, M.-L., Steffensen, J. P., Svensson, A., Olsen, J., and Heinemeier, J.: A synchronized dating of three Greenland ice cores throughout the Holocene, J. Geophys. Res., 111, 13102, doi:10.1029/2005JD006921, 2006.

Wolff, E., Cook, E., Barnes, P. and Mulvaney, R.: Signal variability in replicate ice cores, \textitJ. Glaciol., 51(174), 462-468, 2005.

Wolff, E. W., Fischer, H., Fundel, F., Ruth, U., Twarloh, B., Littot, G. C., Mulvaney, R., Röthlisberger, R., de Angelis, M., Boutron, C. F., Hansson, M., Jonsell, U., Hutterli, M. A., Lambert, F., Kaufmann, P., Stauffer, B., Stocker, T. F., Steffensen, J. P., Bigler, M., Siggaard-Andersen, M. L., Udisti, R., Becagli, S., Castellano, E., Severi, M., Wagenbach, D., Barbante, C., Gabrielli, P., and Gaspari, V.: Southern Ocean sea-ice extent, productivity and iron flux over the past eight glacial cycles, Nature, 440, 491–496, 2006.

Yiou, F., Raisbeck, G. M., Baumgartner, S., Beer, J., Hammer, C., Johnsen, J., Jouzel, J., Kubik, P. W., Lestringuez, J., Stievenard, M., Suter, M., and Yiou, P.: Beryllium 10 in the Greenland Ice Core Project ice core at Summit, Greenland,J. Geophys. Res., 102, 26 783–26 794, 1997.

Yuan, D., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L., Dykoski, C. A., Kelly, M. J., Zhang, M., Qing, J., Lin, Y., Wang, Y., Wu, J., Dorale, J. A., An, Z., and Cai, Y.: Timing, Duration, and Transitions of the Last Interglacial Asian Monsoon, Science, 304(5670), 575–578, 2004.