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Climate variations in Europe over the past 140 kyr deduced from rock magnetism

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Abstract

RAPID shifts in climate during the last glacial are now well documented, particularly from the oxygen isotope records of the two Greenland ice cores GRIP1,2 and GISP23. In the GRIP record1,2 these climate events are also seen during the preceding (Eemian) interglacial which may be an analogue for the future climate, warmed by the greenhouse effect. But these shifts are not found in the Eemian section of the GISP2 core3, casting doubt on whether the rapid shifts in the GRIP oxygen isotope record really do represent a climate signal. Here we present magnetic susceptibility, pollen and organic carbon records from maar lake deposits in the Massif Central, France. These data provide an independent record of past climate and we find that they correlate well with the ice-core records during the last glacial. During the Eemian, two rapid cooling events seen in our record also correlate with those seen in the GRIP ice core, supporting the idea that rapid climate change did occur in the Eemian interglacial and demonstrating that it extended to continental Europe.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Géologie du Quaternaire, Luminy, Case 907, 13288, Marseille, cedex 09, France

    Nicolas Thouveny, Eugène Bonifay, Michel Icole, Trevor Williams & David Williamson

  2. Laboratoire de Botanique historique et Palynologie, 13397, Marseille, cedex 20, France

    Jacques-Louis de Beaulieu, Joel Guiot & Maurice Reille

  3. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JW, UK

    Ken M. Creer & Trevor Williams

  4. The Niels Bohr Inst. Dept. of Geophysics, University of Copenhagen, Haraldsgade 6, DK 2200, Denmark

    Sigfus Johnsen

  5. Department of Geophysics, University of Iceland, Dunghaga 3, IS-107, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Sigfus Johnsen

  6. Laboratoire de Model isation du Climat et de I'Environnement, CEA/DSM, CE Saclay, 91191, France

    Jean Jouzel

  7. Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Geophysique de I'Environnement, BP 96, 38402, St Martin d'Heres, France

    Jean Jouzel

Authors
  1. Nicolas Thouveny
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  2. Jacques-Louis de Beaulieu
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  3. Eugène Bonifay
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  4. Ken M. Creer
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  5. Joel Guiot
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  6. Michel Icole
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  7. Sigfus Johnsen
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  8. Jean Jouzel
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  9. Maurice Reille
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  10. Trevor Williams
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  11. David Williamson
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Thouveny, N., de Beaulieu, JL., Bonifay, E. et al. Climate variations in Europe over the past 140 kyr deduced from rock magnetism. Nature 371, 503–506 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/371503a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/371503a0

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