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A late Eemian aridity pulse in central Europe during the last glacial inception

Nature volume 436, pages 833–836 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Investigating the processes that led to the end of the last interglacial period is relevant for understanding how our ongoing interglacial will end, which has been a matter of much debate (see, for example, refs 1, 2). A recent ice core from Greenland demonstrates climate cooling from 122,000 years ago3 driven by orbitally controlled insolation, with glacial inception at 118,000 years ago4,5,6,7,8. Here we present an annually resolved, layer-counted record of varve thickness, quartz grain size and pollen assemblages from a maar lake in the Eifel (Germany), which documents a late Eemian aridity pulse lasting 468 years with dust storms, aridity, bushfire and a decline of thermophilous trees at the time of glacial inception. We interpret the decrease in both precipitation and temperature as an indication of a close link of this extreme climate event to a sudden southward shift of the position of the North Atlantic drift, the ocean current that brings warm surface waters to the northern European region. The late Eemian aridity pulse occurred at a 65° N July insolation of 416 W m-2, close to today's value of 428 W m-2 (ref. 9), and may therefore be relevant for the interpretation of present-day climate variability.

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Figure 1: Equal-area projection of North Atlantic sea surface temperatures derived from the satellite-borne Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer.
Figure 2: Climate change during the last glacial cycle.
Figure 3: Climate change in the Eifel between 100 and 132 kyr  bp.
Figure 4: Climate change in the Eifel during the last glacial inception from 117–120 kyr  bp.

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Acknowledgements

Drilling of the ELSA cores was done by Stölben GmbH (www.stoelbenbohr.de), and we thank J. Schmitz for his continuous effort to increase the quality of the core material. We thank the Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Innovation, which initiated the first ELSA drillings, and the DEKLIM program of the German Ministry for Education and Research, which financed ELSA over the past 5 years.Author Contributions K. Seelos, grain size analysis; K. Schaber, tuning; B.R., varve counting; F.D. and M.D., pollen analysis; K.J., varve classification; M.K. and D.D., luminescence dating.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geoscience, Johannes Gutenberg-University, 55099, Mainz, Germany

    F. Sirocko, K. Seelos, K. Schaber, B. Rein, F. Dreher, M. Diehl, R. Lehne & K. Jäger

  2. Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, Bernhard-von-Cotta-Strasse 4, 09596 /Sa, Freiberg, Germany

    M. Krbetschek & D. Degering

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  1. F. Sirocko
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Correspondence to F. Sirocko.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Figure S1

Photos of ELSA core HL2 (56 – 55m depth) from the dry maar lake west of Hoher List. (PDF 3627 kb)

Supplementary Figure S2

Pollen spectra. (PDF 2188 kb)

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Sirocko, F., Seelos, K., Schaber, K. et al. A late Eemian aridity pulse in central Europe during the last glacial inception. Nature 436, 833–836 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03905

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