Can the Greenland Climatic Jumps be Identified in Records from Ocean and Land?

Abstract

Sharp jumps in climate punctuate the records from borings in the Greenland ice cap during the time interval 60,000 to about 20,000 yr ago. Rapid fluctuations are also seen in foraminifera records for cores from the northern Atlantic and in a pollen record from a core from a bog in the Vosges Mountains in France. In this paper we present a new radiocarbon chronology for northern Atlantic deep-sea core V23-81 which permits comparison with the radiocarbon-dated Vosges Mountains pollen record. Because of the lack of a 14C chronology for the Greenland ice record and of distortions peculiar to each of the three records, it is not yet possible to say whether or not the events are genetically related.