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Northeast Siberian Permafrost Ice‐Wedge Stable Isotopes Depict Pronounced Last Glacial Maximum Winter Cooling
Author(s) -
Wetterich S.,
Meyer H.,
Fritz M.,
Mollenhauer G.,
Rethemeyer J.,
Kizyakov A.,
Schirrmeister L.,
Opel T.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2020gl092087
Subject(s) - last glacial maximum , permafrost , climatology , geology , holocene , ice wedge , ice core , paleoclimatology , climate change , physical geography , atmospheric sciences , oceanography , geography
Stable isotopes (δ 18 O, δD) of wedge ice hold potential to reconstruct past winter climate conditions. Here, we present records of the marine isotope stages (MIS) 3 and 2 including the last Glacial maximum (LGM) from Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island (NE Siberia). MIS 3 wedge ice dated from 52 to 40 Kyr b2k varies between −32 and −29‰ in δ 18 O. Colder LGM conditions are implied by δ 18 O of −37‰ around 25 Kyr b2k. Similar Deuterium excess values indicate comparable moisture sources during MIS 3 and MIS 2. Regional LGM climate reconstructions depend on the seasonal resolution of the proxies and model simulations. Our wedge‐ice record reflects coldest winters during global minima in atmospheric CO 2 and sea level. The extreme LGM winter cooling is not represented in model projections of global LGM climate where West Beringia shows noticeably little cooling or even warming in mean annual temperatures compared to the late Holocene.