Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-wr9vw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-19T13:58:35.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On Time Scales and Causes of Abrupt Paleoclimatic Events

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Hermann Flohn
Hermann Flohn*
Affiliation:
Meteorologisches Institut der Universität Bonn, Universität Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 20, 53 Bonn 1, West Germany
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During the last 7 × 105 years the occurrence of abrupt climatic variations, of an intensity probably reaching 5°C/50 yr and with a duration of the order of several centuries can be demonstrated; their frequency is of the order 10−4 (sometimes even 10−3) per year. Most impressive examples are sudden coolings in earlier interglacials; in some periods the variability of past climates was obviously much greater than now. Due to the effective spatial coherence of the atmospheric and oceanic circulation their extension, not necessarily of similar intensity, is probably hemispheric or even global. They are modified by feedback mechanisms within the geophysical climatic system; orbital changes play a selective role leading either to suppression or to growth. Any physical interpretation of such abrupt paleoclimatic events remain as yet speculative. One of the most attractive models is the occurrence of clusters of major volcanic eruptions which is more frequent than expected in random series. This is similar to the clustering of severe earthquakes in recent years; both events are probably interrelated responses to the (apparently discontinuous) motions of tectonic plates.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , July 1979 , pp. 135 - 149
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Andrews, J.T., Mahaffy, M.A.W., (1976). Growth rate of the Laurentide ice sheet and sea level lowering (with emphasis on the 115,000 BP sea level low). Quaternary Research. 6, 167–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bé, A.W.H., Damuth, J.E., Lott, L., Free, R., (é et al., 1976). Late Quaternary climatic record in western equatorial Atlantic sediments. Geological Society of America Memoir. 145, 165–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, A.L., (1977). Support for the astronomical theory of climatic change. Nature (London). 269, 44–54.Google Scholar
Berger, A.L., (1978). Long-term variations of caloric insolation resulting from the earth's orbital elements. Quaternary Research. 9, 139–167.Google Scholar
Bloom, A.L., Broecker, W.S., Chappell, J.M.A., Matthews, R.K., Mesolella, K.J., (1974). Quaternary sea-level fluctuations on a tectonic coast: New 230 Th/234 U dates from the Huon Peninsula, New Guinea. Quaternary Research. 4, 184–205.Google Scholar
Bray, J.R., (1974). Volcanism and glaciation during the last 40 millenia. Nature (London). 252, 679–680.Google Scholar
Bray, J.R., (1977). Pleistocene volcanism and glaciation. Science. 197, 251–254.Google Scholar
Butler, R.F., Lindsay, E.H., Jacobs, L.L., Johnson, N.M., (1977). Magnetostratigraphy of the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico. Nature (London). 267, 318–323.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., (1976). Pleistocene Climates. Geoscience and Man. 13, 27–43.Google Scholar
Cita, M.B., Vergnaud-Grazzini, C., Robert, C., Chamley, H., Ciaranfi, N., d'Onofrio, S., (1977). Paleoclimatic record of a long deep-sea core from the eastern Mediterranean. Quaternary Research. 8, 205–235.Google Scholar
Coope, G.R., (1977). Fossil coleoptera assemblages as sensitive indicators of climatic changes during the Devensian (Last) cold stage. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London. B 280, 313–340.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., Johnson, S.J., Clausen, H.B., Langway, C.C. Jr., (1971). Climatic record revealed by the Camp Century ice core. Turekian, K.K., The Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, 37–56.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., Johnson, S.J., Clausen, H.B., Langway, C.C. Jr., (1972). Speculation about the next glaciation. Quaternary Research. 2, 396–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duplessy, J.C., Labeyrie, J., Lalou, C., Nguyen, H.241., (1970). Continental Climatic variations between 130,000 and 90,000 years BP. Nature (London). 226, 631–633.Google Scholar
Eddy, J.A., (1977). The Maunder Minimum. Science. 192, 1189–1202 cf. also.Google Scholar
Eddy, J.A., Science. 198, 824–829.Google Scholar
Emiliani, C., Shackleton, N.J., (1974). The Brunhes Epoch: Isotopic Paleotemperatures and Geochronology. Science. 183, 511–514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fink, J., Kukla, G.J., (1977). Pleistocene climates in Central Europe: At least 17 interglacials after the Olduvai Event. Quaternary Research. 7, 363–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flohn, H., (1974a). Instabilität und anthropogene Modifikation des Klimas. Annalen der Meteorologie, Neue Folge. 9, 25–31.Google Scholar
Flohn, H., (1974b). Background of a geophysical model of the initiation of the next glaciation. Quaternary Research. 4, 385–404.Google Scholar
Flohn, H., (1978). Abrupt events in climatic history. Pittock, A.B., Climatic Changes and Variability, a Southern Perspective. Vol. 23, Cambridge Univ. Press, London/New York, 124–134.Google Scholar
Frenzel, B., (1967) Die Klimaschwankungen des Eiszeitalters. Vieweg, Braunschweig. Google Scholar
Gardener, J.242., Hays, J.D., (1976). Responses of sea-surface temperature and circulation to global climatic change during the past 200,000 years in the eastern equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Geological Society of America Memoir. 145, 221–246.Google Scholar
(1975). GARP Global Atmospheric Research Programme: The Physical Basis of Climate and Climate Modelling. ICSU-WMO, GARP Publication Series No. 16.Google Scholar
Gow, A.J., Ueda, H.T., Garfield, D.E., (1969). Antarctic ice sheet: Preliminary results of first core hole to bedrock. Science. 161, 1011–1013.Google Scholar
Hays, J.D., Imbrie, J., Shackleton, N.J., (1976a). Variations in the earth's orbit: Pacemaker of the ice ages. Science. 194, 1121–1132.Google Scholar
Hays, J.D., Lozano, J.A., Shackleton, N., Irving, G., (1976b). Reconstruction of the Atlantic and Western Indian Ocean sectors of the 18,000 BP Antarctic Ocean. Geological Society of America Memoir. 145, 337–369.Google Scholar
Hays, J.D., (1977). The Late Quaternary climatic history of the Antarctic Seas. X. INQUA-Congress. Birmingham 200 Abstracts.Google Scholar
Hecky, R.E., Degens, E.T., (1973) Late Pleistocene-Holocene Chemical Stratigraphy and Palaeolimnology of the Rift Valley Lakes of Central Africa. Woods Hole Oceanographical Institute, Technical Paper 78-28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hesstvedt, E., (1964). On the water vapour content in the high atmosphere. Geofisiske Publikasjoner. 25, No. 3.Google Scholar
Hollin, J.T., (1976). Thames interglacial sites, Ipswichian sea levels and Antarctic ice surges. Boreas. 6, 33–53.Google Scholar
Hughes, T., (1975). The West Antarctic ice sheet: Instability, disintegration and initiation of ice ages. Review of Geophysics and Space Physics. 13, 502–526.Google Scholar
Hunt, B.G., (1977). A simulation of the possible consequences of a volcanic eruption on the general circulation of the atmosphere. Monthly Weather Review. 105, 247–260.Google Scholar
Ives, J.D., Andrews, J.T., Barry, R.G., (1975). Growth and decay of the Laurentide ice sheet and comparisons with Fenno-Scandinavia. Naturwissenschaften. 62, 118–125.Google Scholar
Johnson, S.J., Dansgaard, W., Clausen, H.B., Langway, C.C. Jr., (1972). Oxygen isotope profiles through the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Nature (London). 235, 429–434.Google Scholar
Johnson, S.J., Dansgaard, W., Clausen, H.B., Langway, C.C. Jr., Oxygen isotope profiles through the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Nature (London). 236, 249.Google Scholar
Kellogg, T.B., (1976). Late Quaternary climatic changes: Evidence from deep-sea cores of Norwegian and Greenland seas. Geological Society of America Memoir. 145, 77–110.Google Scholar
Kellogg, W.W., (1973). Climatic feedback mechanism involving the Polar regions. Climate of the Arctic. 24th Alaska Science Conference, Fairbanks. 111–116.Google Scholar
Kent, D.243., (1978). An estimate of the duration of the faunal change at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Geology. 5, 769–771.Google Scholar
Kukla, G.J., (1975). Loess stratigraphy of Central Europe. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines: Stratigraphy, Ecology and Culture Change in the Middle Pleistocene. Aldine, Chicago, 99–188.Google Scholar
Kukla, G.J., (1977). Pleistocene land-sea correlations. I. Europe. Earth-Science Reviews. 13, 307–374.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., Bryson, R.A., (1974). Variance spectrum of Holocene climatic fluctuations in the North Atlantic Sector. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 31, 1958–1963.Google Scholar
Lamb, H.H., (1970). Volcanic dust in the Atmosphere with chronology and assessment of its meteorological significance. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. A 266, 425–533.Google Scholar
Lamb, H.H., Woodroffe, A., (1970). Atmospheric circulation during the last ice-age. Quaternary Research. 1, 29–58.Google Scholar
Lamb, H.H., (1972) Climate: Present, Past and Future. Vol. I, Methuen, London, (Vol. II, 1977).Google Scholar
Mass, Cl., Schneider, St.H., (1977). Statistical evidence on the influence of sunspots and volcanic dust on long-term temperature records. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. 34, 1995–2004.Google Scholar
Matthews, R.K., (1973). Relative elevation of late Pleistocene high sea level stands: Barbados uplift rates and their implications. Quaternary Research. 3, 147–153.Google Scholar
McLean, D.M., (1978). A terminal Mesozoic “Greenhouse”: Lessons from the past. Science. 201, 401–406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mörner, N.A., (örner, 1973). Climatic changes during the last 35,000 years as indicated by land, sea, and air data. Boreas. 2, 33–53.Google Scholar
Müller, H., (üller, 1965). Eine pollenanalytische Neubearbeitung des Interglazial-Profils von Bilshausen (Unter Eichsfeld). Geologisches Jahrbuch. 83, 327–352.Google Scholar
Müller, H., (üller, 1974). Pollenanalytische Untersuchungen und Jahresschichtenzählungen an der holstein-zeitlichen Kieselgur von Munster-Breloh. Geologisches Jahrbuch A. 21, 107–140.Google Scholar
Müller, H., (üller, 1978). Climatic changes during the last three interglacials. Bach, W., Man's Impact on Climate. Elsevier, Amsterdam. Google Scholar
Oliver, R.C., (1976). On the response of hemispherical mean temperature to stratospheric dust: An empirical approach. Journal of Applied Meteorology. 15, 933–950.Google Scholar
Osborne, P.J., (1974). An insect assemblage of early Flandrian age from Lea Marston, Warwickshire, and its bearing on the contemporary climate and ecology. Quaternary Research. 4, 471–486.Google Scholar
Oswald, G.K.A., de Robin, G., (1973). Lakes beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. Nature (London). 245, 251–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pisias, N.G., Heath, R.G., Moore, T.C. Jr., (1975). Lag times for oceanic responses to climatic change. Nature (London). 256, 716–717.Google Scholar
Pollack, J.P., Toon, O.B., Sagan, C., Summers, A., Baldwin, B., van Camp, W., (1976). Volcanic explosions and climatic change: A theoretical assessment. Journal of Geophysical Research. 81, 1071–1083.Google Scholar
Prell, W.L., Hays, J.D., (1976). Late Pleistocene faunal and temperature patterns of the Columbia Basin, Caribbean Sea. Geological Society of America Memoir. 145, 201–220.Google Scholar
Reiter, E.R., (1975). Stratospheric-tropospheric exchange processes. Review of Geophysics and Space Physics. 13, 459–474.Google Scholar
Richmond, G.M., (1976). Pleistocene stratigraphy and chronology in the mountains of western Wyoming. Mahaney, W.C., Quaternary Stratigraphy of North America. Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross/Academic Press, New York, 353–379.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., Sancetta, C., McIntyre, A., (1977a). Glacial/interglacial response rate of subpolar North Atlantic waters to climatic change: The record in oceanic sediments. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London. B 280, 119–142.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., McIntyre, A., (1977b). Late Quaternary surface oceans kinematics and climatic change in the high-latitude North Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research. 82, 3877–3887.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J., (1976). Oxygen-isotope and paleomagnetic stratigraphy of Pacific core V28–239. Late Pliocene to latest Pleistocene. Geological Society of America Memoir. 145, 449–462.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J., (1977). The oxygen isotope stratigraphy record of the Late Pleistocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London. B 280, 169–182.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J., Opdyke, N.D., (1973). Oxygen isotope and paleomagnetic stratigraphy of Equatorial Pacific core V28–238: Oxygen isotope temperature and ice volumes on a 105-year and 106-year scale. Quaternary Research. 3, 39–55.Google Scholar
Starkel, L., (1977). The problem of synchronism of the Holocene climatic optimum. X. INQUA-Congress. Birmingham 433 Abstract.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Heusser, C.J., Yang, J.Ch., (1978). North American glacial history extended to 75,000 years ago. Science. 200, 16–21.Google Scholar
van Geel, , van der Hammen, T., (1973) Upper Quaternary vegetational and climatic sequence of the Fuquene Area (Eastern Cordillera, Colombia). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 14, 9–92.Google Scholar
Vasari, Y., Hyvärinen, H., Hicks, S., (1972). Climatic Change in Arctic areas during the last ten-thousand years. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis, Serie A, No. 3. .Google Scholar
Wetherald, R.T., Manabe, S., (1975). The effects of changing of the solar constant on the climate of a general circulation model. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 32, 2044–2059.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weyl, P.K., (1968). The role of the oceans in climatic change: A theory of the ice ages. American Meteorological Society, Meteorological Monographs. 30, 37–62.Google Scholar
Wigley, T.M.L., (1976). Spectral analysis and the astronomical theory of climatic change. Nature (London). 264, 629–631.Google Scholar
Wijmstra, T.A., (1975). Palynology and Paleoclimatology of the Last 100,000 years. Proceedings WMO/IAMAP Symposium on Long-Term Climatic Fluctuation. Norwich 1975 World Meteorological Organization No. 421. 5–20.Google Scholar
Wijmstra, T.A., (1978). Paleobotany and climatic change. Gribbin, J., Climatic Change. Cambridge Univ. Press, London/New York, 25–45.Google Scholar
Wilson, A.T., (1964). Origin of ice ages: An ice shelf theory for Pleistocene glaciation. Nature (London). 201, 147–149.Google Scholar
Woillard, G., (1975). Recherches palynologiques sur le Pleistocène dans l'Est de la Belgique et dans les Vosges Lorraines. Acta Geographica Lovanensia. 14, 1–168.Google Scholar
Woillard, G., (1978a). Grande Pile Peat Bog: A continuous pollen record for the last 140,000 years. Quaternary Research. 9, 1–21.Google Scholar
Woillard, G., (1978b) The Last Interglacial-Glacial Cycle at Grande Pile in Northeastern France. Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve. Belgique, Travaux du Laboratoire de Palynology et de Phytosociologie.Google Scholar