North Atlantic storm track changes during the Last Glacial Maximum recorded by Alpine speleothems

Nature Communications
Marc LuetscherW Müller

Abstract

The European Alps are an effective barrier for meridional moisture transport and are thus uniquely placed to record shifts in the North Atlantic storm track pattern associated with the waxing and waning of Late-Pleistocene Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. The lack of well-dated terrestrial proxy records spanning this time period, however, renders the reconstruction of past atmospheric patterns difficult. Here we present a precisely dated, continuous terrestrial record of meteoric precipitation in Europe between 30 and 14.7 ka. In contrast to present-day conditions, our speleothem data provide strong evidence for preferential advection of moisture from the South across the Alps supporting a southward shift of the storm track during the local Last Glacial Maximum (that is, 26.5-23.5 ka). Moreover, our age control indicates that this circulation pattern preceded the Northern Hemisphere precession maximum by ~3 ka, suggesting that obliquity may have played a considerable role in the Alpine ice aggradation.

References

Aug 8, 2009·Science·Peter U ClarkA Marshall McCabe
Aug 15, 2009·Science·R N DrysdaleI Isola

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Citations

Apr 14, 2016·Scientific Reports·Gayatri KathayatSebastian F M Breitenbach
Nov 29, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Gábor ÚjváriJános Kovács
Jul 3, 2020·Chaos·Berenice Rojo-GaribaldiJulyan H E Cartwright
May 20, 2017·Scientific Reports·Giovanni MonegatoAndrea Piccin
Jun 1, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Olivier MoineDenis-Didier Rousseau
Oct 24, 2020·Scientific Reports·Federica BadinoStefano Benazzi
Dec 15, 2020·Science Advances·Brice R ReaRoger J Braithwaite
Apr 23, 2021·Current Biology : CB·Eugenio BortoliniStefano Benazzi

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NGRIP

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