Nature 235, 429 - 434 (25 February 1972); doi:10.1038/235429a0

Oxygen Isotope Profiles through the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets

S. J. JOHNSEN^*, W. DANSGAARD^*, H. B. CLAUSEN^* & C. C. LANGWAY jun.^†

^*Geophysical Isotope Laboratory, Geophysical Institute, University of Copenhagen
^†USA Cold Regions Research Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, New Hampshire

The Camp Century, Greenland, deep ice core reveals seasonal variations in the isotopic composition of the ice back to 8,300 years BP. This is not the case for the Byrd Station, Antarctica, deep ice core. Both cores show long-term perturbations in isotopic composition reflecting climatic changes from before the beginning of the last glaciation. But the complexity of the glaciological regime at Byrd Station precludes a rational choice of a time scale. Pole-to-pole correlations of the palaeoclimatic data therefore become speculative except for the more pronounced features and general trends.

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