Earth's Climate and Orbital Eccentricity: The Marine Isotope Stage 11 Question

240 Pages·2003·22.19 MB·English

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Geophysical Monograph 137
Earth's Climate and Orbital Eccentricity
The Marine Isotope Stage 11 Question
Andre W. Droxler
Richard Z. Poore
Lloyd H. Burckle
Editors
§g American Geophysical Union
Washington, DC
Published under the aegis of the AGU Books Board
Jean-Louis Bougeret, Chair; Gray E. Bebout, Carl T. Friedrichs, James L. Horwitz, Lisa A. Levin,
W. Berry Lyons, Kenneth R. Minschwaner, Darrell Strobel, and William R. Young, members.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Earth's climate and orbital eccentricity : marine isotope stage 11 question / Andre W.
Droxler... [et al.].
p. cm « (Geophysical monograph ; 137)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-87590-996-5
1. Paleoclimatology—Quaternary. 2. Climatic changes. I. Droxler, Andre W., 1953-
II. Series
QC884.2.C5E18 2002
551.6'09'01--dc21
2003048114
ISSN 0065-8448
ISBN 0-87590-996-5
Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union
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CONTENTS
Preface
Andre W. Droxler, Richard Z Poore, and Lloyd H. Burckle vii
Introduction: Unique and Exceptionally Long Interglacial Marine Isotope Stage 11:
Window into Earth Warm Future Climat e
Andre W. Droxler, Richard B. Alley, William R. Howard, Richard Z Poore, and Lloyd H. Burckle 1
PART I: Uniqueness or Inter-Changeable Ice Ages?
Climate 400,000 Years Ago, a Key to the Future?
Andre Berger and Marie-France Loutre 17
Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 in the Vostok Ice Core: C0 Forcing and Stability of East Antarctica
2
D. Raynaud, M. E Loutre, C. Ritz, J. Chappellaz, J-M. Barnola, J. Jouzel,
V. Y. Lipenkov, J-R. Petit, and F. Vimeux 27
On the Dynamics of the Ice Ages : Stage-11 Paradox, Mid-Brunhes Climate Shift, and 100-ky Cycle
W. H. Berger and G. Wefer 41
40Ar/39Ar Datin g of Glacial Termination V and the Duration of Marine Isotopic Stage 11
Daniel B. Karner and Fabrizio Marra 61
PART II: Unexceptionally Warm Ocean Temperatures at High- and Mid-Latitude
Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS 11): Analog for Holocene and Future Climate?
Jerry McManus, Delia Oppo, James Cullen, and Stephanie Healey 69
Interpreting Glacial-lnterglacial Changes in Ice Volume and Climate From Subarctic
Deep Water Foraminiferal 8180
HenningA. Bauch and Helmut Erlenkeuser 87
Quaternary Interglacials and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Reed P. Scherer 103
The Mid-Brunhes Transition in ODP Sites 1089 and 1090 (Subantarctic South Atlantic)
David A. Hodell, Sharon L. Kanfoush, Kathryn A. Venz, Christopher D. Charles, and Francisco J. Sierro 113
Uncertainty in Oxygen Isotope Stage 11 Sea-level: An Estimate of -13 ± 2 m From Great Britain
D. Q. Bowen 131
PART III: Carbonate Bloom at Low Latitudes and Carbonate Bust in the Deep Sea
Sea Surface Temperatures in the Western Equatorial Pacific During Marine Isotope Stage 11
David W. Lea, Dorothy K. Pak, and Howard J. Spero 147
CONTENTS
A Longer-Lasting and Warmer Interglacial Episode During Isotopic Stage 11:
Marine Terrace Evidence in Tropical Western Americas
Luc Ortlieb, Nury Guzman, and Carlos Marquardt 157
Caribbean Carbonate Crash in Pedro Channel at Subthermoclinal Depth
During Marine Isotope Stage 11: A Case of Basin-to-Shelf Carbonat e Fractionation?
K. E. Zeigler, J. P. Schwartz, A. W. Droxler, M. C. Shearer, and L. Peterson 181
PART IV. Continental Climate Records: Longer and Wetter, not Necessarily Warmer
Continental Records of MIS 11
George Kukla 207
The Continental Record of Stage 11: A Review
Denis-Didier Rousseau 213
High-Resolution MIS 11 Record From the Continental Sedimentary Archive
of Lake Baikal, Siberia
Eugene Karabanov, Alexander Prokopenko, Douglas Williams, Galina Khursevich,
Mikhail Kuzmin, Elena Bezrukova, and Alexander Gvozdkov 223
The Chinese Loess Perspective on Marine Isotope Stage 11 as an Extreme Interglacial
Natasa J. Vidic, Kenneth L. Verosub, and Michael J. Singer 231
PREFACE
Weather bureaus around the world have accumulated daily the best-developed and strongest late Quaternary interglacial
historical records of atmospheric conditions for more than a interval, is characterized by the highest-amplitude deglacial
century to help forecast meteorological conditions three t o warming in the past 5 My. Finally, in contrast with most
five days ahead. To gain insight into the impact of possible other Quaternary interglacials, MIS 11 cannot be explained
future climate warming and constrain predictive models for and modeled solely within the context of Milankovitch forc­
a warm future, climatologists are seeking paleoclimatologic ing mechanisms. Indeed, current computer models are not
and paleoceanographic records from the most recent inter­ capable of reproducing this unusually strong interglacial as
vals in the Quaternary when conditions were demonstrably recorded in many oceanic and continental paleoclimatic
warmer than they are today. records. The reason is clear: due to the extremely low eccen­
In the past 2.5 My, Earth climate has oscillated from cold tricity of Earth orbit during most of th e MIS 11 interval, the
(glacial) to warm (interglacial) intervals. We currently live i n overall depressed summer insolation within the range of 60
a warm interval, the Holocene, during which the climate has to 70 degrees north latitude was too low as an external forc­
remained relatively constant for about 10 ky. Because the ing to reproduce the highest amplitude deglacial warming
Holocene is nearly as long now as the previous interglacial, and the best-developed, long lasting, and strongest late
scientists have projected the possibly imminent onset of Quaternary interglacial interval.
another ice age, excluding human intervention. Whether or Based on the conclusions of the sixteen papers presented
not this will occur is a question of some significance, and has in this monograph, in addition to research recently pub­
sparked debate. Finding an analogue to our current status in lished, and the results of an earlier international worksho p on
other recent interglacials offers substantive aid in clarifying the same topic {Droxler et al, 1999), it is obvious that con­
the question just mentioned, and others, concerning global siderable uncertainties remain in our documentation and
climate change over varying geologic time periods. understanding of MIS 11. The papers in this volume sum­
The interglacial centered at 400 ka known as Marine Isotope marize currently established and conflicting knowledge on
Stage (MIS) 11 best satisfies our research needs here. Indeed, the marine and terrestrial records of the interglacial interval
the climatic external forcing during interglacial MIS 11 Earth equivalent to MIS 11. In short, the monograph addresses a
orbital parameters are repeated almost identically during the series of basic questions on how MIS 11 was generated and
Holocene. Both interglacials correspond to times when the how long it lasted, including: whether the Earth was warmer
eccentricity of the Earth's orbit was at its minimum so that the then than today in the different oceans and on several conti­
amplitude of the precessional cycle was damped. nents within a wide range of latitudes, whether sea level wa s
MIS 11 is an unusual and perhaps unique interglacial inter­ much higher then than today, whether the West Antarctic
val. It exhibited warm interglacial climatic conditions for an sheet collapsed, and finally, whether the modern barrier reefs
interval of at least 30 ky, a duration twice as long as the most became synchronously established at that time.
recent interglacial stages; it occurred after a gradual deterio­ Among late Quaternary interglacial intervals, MIS 11 is
ration of Earth climate over a 2.5 My-long period; it is char­ obviously a unique and exceptionally long interglacial that
acterized by a return to warm climatic conditions that were can be used as a window into future climate conditions. It is
probably only observed prior to 2.2 Ma; it most likely wit­ important to recall that the Earth's orbital parameters, char­
nessed sea levels 13 to 20 m above current sea levels, which acteristic of interglacial MIS 11, are repeated almost identi­
would imply that, at minimum, the Greenland and West cally during the Holocene and the future 10 to 20 ky. In this
Antarctic ice sheets had melted; and it included favorable regard, one of the most puzzling and challenging questions
conditions that probably triggered, based on recent data, the that faces us in climatology, particularly in the context of the
establishment of modern barrier reefs. Moreover, MIS 11 , recent anthropogenic increase of atmospheric greenhouse
vii
gases, concerns the unusual climatic conditions characteristic Andre W. Droxler, Richard Z. Poore, Lloyd H. Burckle,
of MIS 11. Will such conditions be duplicated in the Earth's "Data on Past Climate Warmth May Lead to Better
future climate during the next 10 to 20 ky? Model of Warm Future," Eos, Transactions, American
It is the wish of the editors that the present monograph ded­ Geophysical Union, 80, 26 (1999), 289-290.
icated to interglacial MIS 11 find its place as an authoritative
and useful resource in the education of a new generation of The workshop on MIS 11, held in San Francisco,
paleoclimatologists and oceanographers, and in the develop­ California, December 5, 1998 was sponsored by the Joint
ment of future national and international global change Oceanographic Institutions/US. Science Support Program
research efforts particularly focusing on past Earth climate and the US. Geological Survey. Most of the papers published
during the mid-Brunhes interval from MIS 13 until MIS 9. in this monograph were first presented at a special session
titled, t(Marine Isotope Stage 11: An Extreme Interglacial?"
organized during the annual Fall 1999 AGU meeting in San
Andre W. Droxler, Francisco. We would like to thank the contributing authors to
Department of Earth Science this volume, in particular for their patience and understand­
Rice University ing for the delay in the publication of the monograph. We
Houston, Texas also wish to thank Allan Graubard, our acquisitions editor,
and Bethany Matsko, our production editor, at AGU, for their
Richard Z. Poore, sustained effort and enthusiasm. Lanette Marcha at Rice
U.S. Geological Survey helped organize the review process of the manuscripts. We
Reston, Virginia are grateful to our colleagues for their efforts in anonymous­
ly or openly reviewing the sixteen contributions to this mono­
Lloyd H. Burckle, graph. We would like to dedicate this monograph to the chil­
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory dren of today, in particular Dylan and Keegan, who may wit­
Columbia University ness tomorrow some change in Earth s climate that we per­
Palisades, New York haps cannot yet foresee!
LIST OF REVIEWERS
Richard Alley John W. King
John Andrews John E. Kutzbach
Paul A. Baker Marie France Loutre
Frank C. Bassinot Darrel Maddy
Giancarlo G Bianchi Bradley N. Opdyke
Torsten Bickert Delia W. Oppo
Peter W. Birkeland Larry C. Peterson
Gerard C. Bond Alexander A. Prokopenko
Mark A. Cane A. Christina Ravelo
Thomas J. Crowley Scott D. Rutherford
Eugene Domak Nat Rutter
John W. Farrell Eric S. Saltzman
Benjamin P. Flower Stephanie S. Shipp
Christine Schott Hvidberg Robert C. Thunell
William R. Howard Slawek Tulaczyk
Anne E. Jennings P. Chronis Tzedakis
Dominique Jolly John F. Wehmiller
J.ames P. Kennett Rainer Zahn
viii
Unique and Exceptionally Long Interglacial Marine Isotope Stage 11:
Window into Earth Warm Future Climate
Andre W. Droxler1, Richard B. Alley2, William R. Howard3, Richard Z. Poore4,
and Lloyd H. Burckle5
Earth climate is changing! For geoscientists who probe terglacials. Indeed, the Earth orbital parameters charac­
the sedimentary and ice paleoclimate archives, this will be teristic of interglacial MIS 11 are repeated almost identi­
old news. Since the onset of major glaciations in the cally during the Holocene. Both interglacials correspond
Northern Hemisphere about three million years ago, Earth to times when the eccentricity of the Earth orbit was at its
climate has gradually cooled and at the same time oscil­ minimum so that the amplitude of the precessional cycle
lated from cold (glacial) to warm (interglacial) intervals. was damped.
We live in one of those warm intervals, the Holocene, The interval including MIS 11 and MIS 9, often re­
during which the climate has remained relatively constant ferred to as Mid-Brunhes, has often been considered an
for about 10 ky. The Holocene followed the Last Glacial unusually warm time interval in the last 1.0 My. Reviews
Maximum, a time 20 ka when half of North America and of the literature by Burckle (1993), Hodell (1993), How­
most of Northern Europe were covered by ice sheets sev­ ard and Prell (1994), Howard (1997), Poore et al. (1999),
eral km thick and sea level had fallen by more than 120 and Droxler and Farrell (2000 and references therein) in­
m. dicate that unusual climatic conditions occurred during
Over at least a few 100 ky cycles, long cold glacials the Mid-Brunhes. Relative to MIS 5 and the Holocene
have alternated with short warm interglacials, perhaps in (MIS 1), MIS 11 and MIS 9 display prolonged and per­
response to varying incoming solar radiation caused by haps intense warmth, generally higher sea level stands,
the 100 ky eccentricity cycle in Earth's orbit. Because the unusual penetration of warm surface waters pole-ward
current interglacial has already been about as long as the and unusually large sea floor carbonate accumulation in
previous one, an expectation exists that another ice age the Southern Oceans. Moreover, MIS 11 stands alone as
might be imminent in the absence of human intervention. a unique interglacial interval: it has been recognized as an
However, eccentricity also exhibits a 413 ky orbital unusually strong and probably the longest late Pleistocene
variation, so the interglacial centered at 400 ka known as interglacial MIS; it exhibited warm interglacial climatic
marine isotope stage (MIS) 11 is probably a better ana­ conditions for an interval of at least 30 ky, a duration
logue for our current status than are any other recent in- twice as long as the most recent interglacial stages; it oc­
curred after a gradual cooling of Earth's climate over a
1 Dept. of Earth Science, Rice University, P.O. Box 1892, 2.5 My-long period; and it is characterized by a return to
Houston, TX 77251, USA [email protected] climatic conditions that were probably only observed
2 EMS Environment Inst, and Dept. of Geosciences, Pennsyl­ prior to 2.2 Ma based upon high resolution oxygen iso­
vania State Univ., University Park, PA, 16802, USA tope records (Figure 1; Mix et al., 1995).
3 Antarctic CRC, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-80,
Moreover, MIS 11 is characterized by the highest-
Hobart, Tasmania 7001, AUSTRALIA
amplitude deglacial warming in the past 5 My. MIS 11
4 U.S. Geological Survey, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston,
most likely witnessed sea levels 13 to 20 meters above
VA 20192, USA
5 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, current sea levels, which would imply that, at minimum,
P.O. Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964-1000 USA the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets had melted.
So far only Scherer et al. (1998) have suggested a col­
lapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet at that time. The
Earth's Climate and Orbital Eccentricity:
combination of increased sea surface temperatures at low
The Marine Isotope Stage 11 Question
Geophysical Monograph 137 latitudes and flooding, after a long exposure interval, of
Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union former late Pliocene and early Pleistocene coastal depos­
10.1029/137GM01 its and isolated carbonate bank tops probably triggered the
1
2 MARINE ISOTOPE STAGE 11: WINDOW INTO FUTURE EARTH CLIMATE
bit during most of the MIS 11 interval, the overall de­
pressed summer insolation within the range of 60 to 70
degrees north latitude was too low as an external forcing
to reproduce the highest-amplitude deglacial warming and
the best-developed, long lasting, and strongest late Qua­
ternary interglacial interval.
Among late Quaternary interglacial intervals, MIS 11 is
obviously a unique and exceptionally long interglacial
that can be used as a window into future climate condi­
tions. In this regard, one of the most puzzling and chal­
lenging questions that faces us in climatology, particularly
in the context of the recent anthropogenic increase of at­
mospheric greenhouse gases, concerns the unusual cli­
matic conditions characteristic of MIS 11. Will such con­
ditions be duplicated in the Earth's future climate during
Age (Ma)
the next 10 to 20 ky? Before attempting to answer this
question, and because of the uniqueness of MIS 11, it is
important to place MIS 11 in the context of the climate on
Figure 1. The benthic oxygen isotope record at ODP Site 849
Earth in the past 5 My.
from the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean in 3839 m of water
depth (Mix et al., 1995) can be used as a reliable proxy for ice
volume and, therefore, climate and sea level changes for the last 1. GLACIAL MIS 12 TO INTERGLACIAL MIS 11
5 My. Since the onset of major glaciations in the Northern TRANSITION: A MAJOR STEP IN THE LAST 3.0 My
Hemisphere about 3.0 to 2.7 Ma, the Earth climate evolution CLIMATE RECORD
displays three main characteristics: (1) the gradual cooling of the
Earth climate in the past 3.0 My, (2) the Earth climate cyclic
During the roughly 2 My's-long early Pliocene interval,
fluctuations first at about 41 ky per cycle linked to the variations
climate on Earth was warmer and more stable than during
of the tilt of the Earth axis (or obliquity) and then at lower fre­
quency of about 100 ky per cycle (or orbital eccentricity), and the late Miocene and the following late Pliocene and
(3) the transition from glacial MIS 12 (the heaviest glacial val­ Quaternary. The warm climate conditions ended with the
ues with MIS 16) to interglacial MIS 11, characterized by the onset of widespread Northern Hemisphere glaciation at
first lightest values in the late Quaternary, therefore a unique about 3.0-2.7 Ma (Willis et al., 1999 and reference
glacial to interglacial transition due to its extreme amplitude. therein), ending more than 200 million years without
widespread bipolar glaciation. Cooling continued through
establishment of modern barrier reefs and atolls during the late Pliocene and Quaternary. Although the Earth cli­
MIS 11. It is not fortuitous, therefore, that MIS 11 also mate has been in a glacial mode since the beginning of the
stands out as a pulse of carbonate dissolution in carbonate late Pliocene, the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, located
records from sub-thermoclinal to abyssal depths at low at relatively lower latitudes than the Antarctic ice sheets
and mid latitudes in the global oceans and some marginal centered on the southern pole, have remained unstable,
seas (Droxler et al., 1997; Droxler and Farrell, 2000). The and waxed and waned numerous times. The Earth climate,
terrestrial record also suggests that MIS 11 represents in therefore, has fluctuated on a cyclic basis from mostly
most instances the longest, and perhaps warmest, inter­ cold to shorter relatively warm intervals (glacial to inter­
glacial stage in the past 500 ky, based upon pollen records glacial stages), first at high frequency and low amplitude
from lakes and the magnetic susceptibility of loess and and then at lower frequency but much higher amplitudes
interbedded soils from the Loess Plateau of China (Kukla Because the range of water temperature variations at
etal.1988). abyssal depths is expected to have remained minimum
Finally, in contrast with most other Quaternary inter­ during the Quaternary and late Pliocene (although with
glacials, MIS 11 has not yet been successfully explained some changes; Schrag et al. (1996)), oxygen isotopes
and modeled solely within the context of Milankovitch measured from benthic foraminifers are thought to be the
forcing mechanisms. Indeed, current computer models are most reliable record of ice volume variations. For in­
not capable of reproducing this unusually strong intergla­ stance, the benthic oxygen isotope record at ODP Site 849
cial as recorded in many oceanic and continental paleo- from the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean in 3839 m of
climatic records (Imbrie and Imbrie, 1980; Berger and water depth (Figure 1; Mix et al., 1995) has been used as
Wefer, this volume and references therein). The reason is a reliable proxy for ice volume and, therefore, climate and
clear: due to the extremely low eccentricity of Earth's or­ sea level changes for the last 5 My. Figure 1 clearly illus-