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Published on: March 31, 2023
Abrupt climate changes during Termination III in Southern Europe
Carlos Pérez-Mejías1,2, Ana Moreno3, Carlos Sancho2
1Department of Geoenvironmental Processes and Global Change, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IPE-CSIC), 50059 Zaragoza, Spain; cperez@ipe.csic.es.
Abstract:
The Late Quaternary glacial-interglacial transitions represent the highest amplitude climate changes over the last million years. Unraveling the sequence of events and feedbacks at Termination III (T-III), including potential abrupt climate reversals similar to those of the last Termination, has been particularly challenging due to the scarcity of well-dated records worldwide. Here, we present speleothem data from southern Europe covering the interval from 262.7 to 217.9 kyBP, including the transition from marine isotope stage (MIS) 8 to MIS 7e. High-resolution δ13C, δ18O, and Mg/Ca profiles reveal major millennial-scale changes in aridity manifested in changing water availability and vegetation productivity. uranium-thorium dates provide a solid chronology for two millennial-scale events (S8.1 and S8.2) which, compared with the last two terminations, has some common features with Heinrich 1 and Heinrich 2 in Termination I (T-I).
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