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Homogeneous climate variability across East Antarctica over the past three glacial cycles

Nature volume 422, pages 509–512 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Recent ice core studies have raised the disturbing possibility that glacial–interglacial climate changes may be non-uniform across Antarctica1,2. These findings have been confined to records from the Ross Sea sector of the continent, but significant deviations in other areas would call into question the widely assumed validity of the climate record obtained from Vostok, East Antarctica, on large spatial scales3. Here we present an isotopic profile from a core drilled at Dome Fuji4,5, situated 1,500 km from Vostok in a different sector of East Antarctica. The two records show remarkable similarities over the past three glacial cycles (the extent of the Dome Fuji record) in both large-amplitude changes, such as terminations, interglacials and interstadials and more subtle glacial events, even when the origin of precipitation is accounted for. Our results indicate that Antarctic climate is essentially homogeneous at the scale of the East Antarctic Plateau, possibly as a consequence of the symmetry of the plateau and the adjacent ocean.

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Figure 1: Map of Antarctica with indication of the deep drilling sites.
Figure 2: Comparison of the Vostok and Dome Fuji isotopic records as a function of depth and time.
Figure 3: Comparison of the Dome Fuji and Vostok isotopic temperature and deuterium-excess10,25 records.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Dome F drilling team and all participants in field work, ice sampling and isotopic measurements. We acknowledge the National Institute of Polar Resesarch (Tokyo) for the logistic support. The project is supported in Japan by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Area (B) and, in France, by PNEDC (Programme National d'Etudes de la Dynamique du Climat) and by the Pole-Ocean-Pole (POP) programme of the European Communities. We thank R. Uemura and F. Vimeux for access to excess data, and N. Caillon, V. Masson, D. Schrag, B. Stauffer, R. Uemura, F. Vimeux and C.Waelbroeck for discussions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Polar Research, 9-10 Kaga 1-chome, Itabashi-ku, 173, Tokyo, Japan

    O. Watanabe

  2. IPSL/Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR CEA-CNRS, CE Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    J. Jouzel & F. Parrenin

  3. Department of Geophysics, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    S. Johnsen

  4. Science Institute, University of Reykjavik, Dunhaga 3, 107, Reykjavik, Iceland

    S. Johnsen

  5. Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement, CNRS, BP 96, 38402, Saint Martin d'Hères, Cedex, France

    F. Parrenin

  6. New Energy Resources Research Center, Kitami Institute of Technology, 165, Koen-Cho, Kitami, 090-8507, Japan

    H. Shoji

  7. Frontier Collaborative Research Center, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259, Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, 226-8502, Yokohama, Japan

    N. Yoshida

  8. The SORST Project, Japan

    N. Yoshida

  9. Science and Technology Corporation, Saitama, 332-0012, Kawaguchi, Japan

    N. Yoshida

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  1. O. Watanabe
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Correspondence to J. Jouzel.

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Watanabe, O., Jouzel, J., Johnsen, S. et al. Homogeneous climate variability across East Antarctica over the past three glacial cycles. Nature 422, 509–512 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01525

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