Rapid Northern Hemisphere Ice Sheet Melting During the Penultimate Deglaciation

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2022 Jul 2

PMID 35780147

Authors

Heather M Stoll

Isabel Cacho

Edward Gasson

Jakub Sliwinski

Oliver Kost

Ana Moreno

Miguel Iglesias

Judit Torner

Carlos Perez-Mejias

Negar Haghipour

Hai Cheng

R Lawrence Edwards

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The rate and consequences of future high latitude ice sheet retreat remain a major concern given ongoing anthropogenic warming. Here, new precisely dated stalagmite data from NW Iberia provide the first direct, high-resolution records of periods of rapid melting of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the penultimate deglaciation. These records reveal the penultimate deglaciation initiated with rapid century-scale meltwater pulses which subsequently trigger abrupt coolings of air temperature in NW Iberia consistent with freshwater-induced AMOC slowdowns. The first of these AMOC slowdowns, 600-year duration, was shorter than Heinrich 1 of the last deglaciation. Although similar insolation forcing initiated the last two deglaciations, the more rapid and sustained rate of freshening in the eastern North Atlantic penultimate deglaciation likely reflects a larger volume of ice stored in the marine-based Eurasian Ice sheet during the penultimate glacial in contrast to the land-based ice sheet on North America as during the last glacial.

Citing Articles

Asynchronicity of deglacial permafrost thawing controlled by millennial-scale climate variability.

Yan X, Zhang X, Liu B, Mithan H, Hellstrom J, Nuber S Nat Commun. 2025; 16(1):290.

PMID: 39747006 PMC: 11697416. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-55184-z.

Sustained North Atlantic warming drove anomalously intense MIS 11c interglacial.

Hu H, Marino G, Perez-Mejias C, Spotl C, Yokoyama Y, Yu J Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):5933.

PMID: 39009621 PMC: 11251152. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50207-1.

Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles of the penultimate and last glacial period recorded in stalagmites from Türkiye.

Held F, Cheng H, Edwards R, Tuysuz O, Koc K, Fleitmann D Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):1183.

PMID: 38331936 PMC: 10853552. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45507-5.

Iberian Margin surface ocean cooling led freshening during Marine Isotope Stage 6 abrupt cooling events.

Zhang H, Huang Y, Wijker R, Cacho I, Torner J, Santos M Nat Commun. 2023; 14(1):5390.

PMID: 37666864 PMC: 10477208. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41142-8.

References

DeConto R, Pollard D . Contribution of Antarctica to past and future sea-level rise. Nature. 2016; 531(7596):591-7. DOI: 10.1038/nature17145. View

Gregoire L, Payne A, Valdes P . Deglacial rapid sea level rises caused by ice-sheet saddle collapses. Nature. 2012; 487(7406):219-22. DOI: 10.1038/nature11257. View

Shakun J, Clark P, He F, Marcott S, Mix A, Liu Z . Global warming preceded by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations during the last deglaciation. Nature. 2012; 484(7392):49-54. DOI: 10.1038/nature10915. View

Cheng H, Edwards R, Broecker W, Denton G, Kong X, Wang Y . Ice age terminations. Science. 2009; 326(5950):248-52. DOI: 10.1126/science.1177840. View

Clark P, He F, Golledge N, Mitrovica J, Dutton A, Hoffman J . Oceanic forcing of penultimate deglacial and last interglacial sea-level rise. Nature. 2020; 577(7792):660-664. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-1931-7. View

Zhang J, Liu Z, Brady E, Oppo D, Clark P, Jahn A . Asynchronous warming and δO evolution of deep Atlantic water masses during the last deglaciation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017; 114(42):11075-11080. PMC: 5651742. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1704512114. View

Wickert A, Mitrovica J, Williams C, Anderson R . Gradual demise of a thin southern Laurentide ice sheet recorded by Mississippi drainage. Nature. 2013; 502(7473):668-71. DOI: 10.1038/nature12609. View

Bajo P, Drysdale R, Woodhead J, Hellstrom J, Hodell D, Ferretti P . Persistent influence of obliquity on ice age terminations since the Middle Pleistocene transition. Science. 2020; 367(6483):1235-1239. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw1114. View

Drysdale R, Hellstrom J, Zanchetta G, Fallick A, Sanchez Goni M, Couchoud I . Evidence for obliquity forcing of glacial Termination II. Science. 2009; 325(5947):1527-31. DOI: 10.1126/science.1170371. View

10.

Skinner L, Waelbroeck C, Scrivner A, Fallon S . Radiocarbon evidence for alternating northern and southern sources of ventilation of the deep Atlantic carbon pool during the last deglaciation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014; 111(15):5480-4. PMC: 3992695. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1400668111. View

11.

Genty D, Blamart D, Ouahdi R, Gilmour M, Baker A, Jouzel J . Precise dating of Dansgaard-Oeschger climate oscillations in western Europe from stalagmite data. Nature. 2003; 421(6925):833-7. DOI: 10.1038/nature01391. View

12.

Grant K, Rohling E, Bar-Matthews M, Ayalon A, Medina-Elizalde M, Bronk Ramsey C . Rapid coupling between ice volume and polar temperature over the past 150,000 years. Nature. 2012; 491(7426):744-7. DOI: 10.1038/nature11593. View

13.

Grant K, Rohling E, Bronk Ramsey C, Cheng H, Edwards R, Florindo F . Sea-level variability over five glacial cycles. Nat Commun. 2014; 5:5076. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6076. View

14.

Marino G, Rohling E, Rodriguez-Sanz L, Grant K, Heslop D, Roberts A . Bipolar seesaw control on last interglacial sea level. Nature. 2015; 522(7555):197-201. DOI: 10.1038/nature14499. View

15.

Yokoyama Y, Esat T, Thompson W, Thomas A, Webster J, Miyairi Y . Rapid glaciation and a two-step sea level plunge into the Last Glacial Maximum. Nature. 2018; 559(7715):603-607. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0335-4. View

16.

Geibert W, Matthiessen J, Stimac I, Wollenburg J, Stein R . Glacial episodes of a freshwater Arctic Ocean covered by a thick ice shelf. Nature. 2021; 590(7844):97-102. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03186-y. View

17.

Condron A, Winsor P . Meltwater routing and the Younger Dryas. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; 109(49):19928-33. PMC: 3523838. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1207381109. View

18.

Alvarez-Solas J, Robinson A, Montoya M, Ritz C . Iceberg discharges of the last glacial period driven by oceanic circulation changes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013; 110(41):16350-4. PMC: 3799353. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1306622110. View

19.

McManus , Oppo , Cullen . A 0.5-million-year record of millennial-scale climate variability in the north atlantic . Science. 1999; 283(5404):971-5. DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5404.971. View

20.

Martrat B, Grimalt J, Shackleton N, de Abreu L, Hutterli M, Stocker T . Four climate cycles of recurring deep and surface water destabilizations on the Iberian margin. Science. 2007; 317(5837):502-7. DOI: 10.1126/science.1139994. View