Oxygen isotopes of lake marl at Gerzensee and Leysin (Switzerland), covering the Younger Dryas and two minor oscillations, and their correlation to the GRIP ice core

Schwander, Jakob; Eicher, Ueli; Ammann, Brigitta (2000). Oxygen isotopes of lake marl at Gerzensee and Leysin (Switzerland), covering the Younger Dryas and two minor oscillations, and their correlation to the GRIP ice core. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 159(3-4), pp. 203-214. Elsevier 10.1016/S0031-0182(00)00085-7

Text PaleogeogrPaleocl_159_203.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (340kB)

The ratio of oxygen isotopes is a temperature proxy both in precipitation and in the calcite of lacustrine sediments. The very similar oxygen-isotope records from Greenland ice cores and European lake sediments during the Last Glacial Termination suggest that the drastic climatic changes occurred quasi-simultaneously on an extra-regional, probably hemispheric scale. In order to study temporal relations of the different parameters recorded in lake sediments, for example biotic response times to rapid climatic changes, a precise chronology is required. In unlaminated lake sediments there is not yet available a method to provide a high-resolution chronology, especially for periods with radiocarbon plateaux. Alternatively, an indirect time scale can be constructed by linking the lake stratigraphy with other well-dated climate records. New oxygen-isotope records from Gerzensee and Leysin, with an estimated sampling resolution of between 15 and 40 years, match the Greenlandic isotope record in many details. Under the assumption that the main variations in temperature and thus in oxygen isotopes occurred about simultaneously in Greenland and Switzerland, we have assigned a time scale to the lake sediments of Gerzensee and Leysin by wiggle-matching their stable-isotope records with those of Greenland ice cores, which are among the best dated climatic archives. We estimate a precision of 20 to 100 years during the Last Glacial Termination.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

2 since deposited on 26 Apr 2016
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item