Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:33:14.622Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Origin and Consequences of Cyclic Ice Rafting in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean During the Past 130,000 Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Hartmut Heinrich
Hartmut Heinrich*
Affiliation:
Deutsches Hydrographisches Institut, Bernhard-Nocht-Str. 78, D-2000 Hamburg 4, West Germany
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Deep-sea sediment cores recovered from the Northeast Atlantic Ocean were examined in order to elucidate the influence of the Earth's orbital parameters on major ice rafting. Analyses of coarse-grained ice-rafted debris and planktonic foraminifers revealed a strong reaction to the precession signal. Since 130,000 yr B.P., dropstone layers have been deposited each half period of a precessional cycle (11,000 ± 1000 yr). Ice rafting occurs during times of winter minimum/summer maximum insolation and summer minimum/winter maximum insolation. In the first case, high summer insolation forces meltwater discharge from the ice sheets into the polar seas which subsequently enhances formation of sea ice during the winter. In the second case, growth of continental ice enhances iceberg production which also leads to a salinity reduction of surface seawater. Both situations result in a southward penetration of polar water. Thus, the marine record of dropstones documents ice rafting not only during Weichselian stades but also during cold events within interstades. The regularity of ice rafting yields a useful framework to calibrate and elucidate climatic changes, not only in the region of the North Atlantic Ocean but also in remote areas such as the Pacific Ocean and the Antarctic.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , March 1988 , pp. 142 - 152
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1978 Berger, A.L., Long-term variations of caloric insolation resulting from the Earth's orbital elements. Quaternary Research. 9 139–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1979 Berger, A., Spectrum of climatic variations and their causal mechanisms. Geophysical Surveys. 3 351–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1974 Bloom, A.L., Broecker, W.S., Chappell, J.A.M., Matthews, R.K., Mesolella, K.J., Quaternary sea level fluctuations on a tectonic coast: New 230Th 234U dates from the Huon Peninsula, New Guinea. Quaternary Research. 4 185–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1983 Bouvier, J.-M., An astronomical approach to human prehistoric ecology: Quantitative insolation at Late Würm in south-west France. Actes Coll. AGSO Bordeaux, Mai 1983. Bulletin de l'Institut de Geologie du Bassin d'Aquitaine. 34 27–35, and CNRS Cahiers du Quaternaire, Special edition.Google Scholar
1941 Bramlette, M.N., Bradley, W.H., Geology and Biology of North Atlantic Deep-Sea Cores between Newfoundland and Ireland: I. Lithology and Geologic Interpretation. 1–34, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 196-A.Google Scholar
1968 Broecker, W.S., Thurber, D.L., Goddard, J., Ku, T.-L., Matthews, R.K., Mesolella, K.J., Milankovitch hypothesis supported by precise dating of coral reefs and deep-sea sediments. Science. 159 297–300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1978 Chappell, J., Veeh, H.H., 230Th 234U age support of an interstadial sea level of −40 m at 30,000 yr B.P.. Nature (London). 276 602–603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1976 Cline, R.M., Hays, J.D., Investigation of Late Quaternary paleoceanography and paleoclimatology. Geological Society of America Memoir. 145.Google Scholar
1984 Dansgaard, W., The future degree of glaciation. Flohn, H., Frantechi, R., The Climate of Europe: Past, Present and Future. Reidel, Dordrecht, 225–248.Google Scholar
1984 Emery, K.D., Uchupi, E., The Geology of the Atlantic Ocean. Springer-Verlag, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1986 Gard, G., Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy of Late Quaternary Arctic sediments. Boreas. 15 3 217–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1980 Hammer, C.U., Clausen, H.B., Dansgaard, W., Greenland ice sheet evidence of post-glacial volcanism and its climatic impact. Nature (London). 288 230–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1976 Hays, J.D., Imbrie, J., Shackleton, N.J., Variations in the earth's orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages. Science. 194 1121–1132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1986a Heinrich, H., Bathymetrie und Geomorphologie des NOAMP-Gebietes, Westeuropäisches Becken (17W bis 22W, 46N bis 49N). Deutsche Hydrographische Zeitschrift. 39 183–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1986b Heinrich, H., A comparison of conventional ship-installed 3.5 kHz Sub Bottom Profiler and the new KAE “Parasound” illustrated by an acoustic mapping of a deep-sea meander. Deutsche Hydrographische Zeitschrift. 39 255–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1984 Herterich, K., Sarnthein, M., Brunhes time scale: Tuning by rates of calcium-carbonate dissolution and cross spectral analyses with solar insolation. Berger, A., Milankovitch and Climate. Vol. 126 Reidel, Dordrecht, 447–466, NATO ASI Series C.Google Scholar
1987 Hyde, W.T., Peltier, W.R., Sensitivity experiments with a model of the Ice Age cycle: The response to Milankovitch Forcing. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 44 10 1351–1374.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1979 Mangerud, J., Larsen, E., Longva, O., Sonstegaard, E., Glacial history of Western Norway 15,000-10,000 B.P.. Boreas. 8 179–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1984 Mangerud, J., Lie, S.E., Furnes, H., Kristiansen, I.L., Lomo, L., A Younger Dryas ash bed in Western Norway, and its possible correlation with tephra in cores from the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic. Quaternary Research. 21 85–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1972 McIntyre, A., Ruddiman, W.F., Jantzen, R., Southward penetration of the North Atlantic Polar Front: Faunal and floral evidence of largescale surface water mass movements over the last 225,000 years. Deep-Sea Research. 19 61–77.Google Scholar
1930 Milankovitch, M., Mathematische Klimalehre und astronomische Theorie der Klimaschwankungen. Köppen, W., Geiger, R., Handbuch der Klimatologie. Bornträger, Berlin, I(A).Google Scholar
1986 Porter, S.C., Pattern and forcing of Northern Hemisphere glacier variations during the last millenium. Quaternary Research. 26 27–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1987 Raisbeck, G.M., Yiou, F., Bourles, D., Lorius, C., Jouzel, J., Barkov, N.I., Evidence for two intervals of enhanced 10-Be deposition in Antarctic ice during the last glacial period. Nature (London). 326 273–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1985 Reeh, N., Was the Greenland ice sheet thinner in the late Wisconsin than now?. Nature (London). 317 797–799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1986 Rind, D., Peteet, D., Broecker, W.S., McIntyre, A., Ruddiman, W.F., The impact of cold North Atlantic sea surface temperatures on climate: Implications for the Younger Dryas cooling (11-10 k). Climate Dynamics. 1 1 3–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1977 Ruddiman, W.F., Late Quaternary deposition of ice-rafted sand in the subpolar North Atlantic (lat 40 to 65). Geological Society of America Bulletin. 88 1813–1827.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1972 Ruddiman, W.F., Glover, L.K., Vertical mixing of ice-rafted volcanic ash in North Atlantic sediments. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 83 9 2817–2835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1975 Ruddiman, W.F., Glover, L.K., Subpolar North Atlantic circulation at 9300 yr BP: Faunal evidence. Quaternary Research. 5 361–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1976 Ruddiman, W.F., McIntyre, A., Northeast Atlantic paleoclimatic changes over the past 600,000 years. Geological Society of America Memoir. 145 111–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1981a Ruddiman, W.F., McIntyre, A., The North Atlantic during the last deglaciation. Palaeogeography, Paleoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 35 145–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1981b Ruddiman, W.F., McIntyre, A., Oceanic mechanisms for amplification of the 23,000-year ice-volume cycle. Science. 212 617–627.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1984 Ruddiman, W.F., McIntyre, A., Ice-age thermal response and climatic role of the surface Atlantic Ocean, 40N° to 63°N. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 95 381–396.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1980 Ruddiman, W.F., McIntyre, A., Niebler-Hunt, V., Durazzi, J.T., Oceanic evidence for the mechanism of rapid northern hemisphere glaciation. Quaternary Research. 13 33–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1984 Saltzman, B., Hansen, A.R., Maasch, K.A., The late Quaternary glaciations as the response of a three-component feedback system to Earth-orbital forcing. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 41 3380–3389.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1984 Schiffelbein, P., Effect of benthic mixing on the information content of deep-sea stratigraphical signals. Nature (London). 311 651–653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1972 Vernekar, A.D., Long-period global variations of incoming solar radiation. Meteorological Monographs. 12 1–21.Google Scholar