Climatic instability, ice sheets and ocean dynamics at high northern latitudes during the last glacial period (58-10 KA BP)

Abstract

Oxygen isotope,magnetic susceptibility and foraminiferal distribution data are presented for a high resolution core (ENAM93-21) located at the northeast Faeroe Margin. This core recorded a rapid succession of faunistic, sedimentologic and isotopic variations which paralleled the Greenland ice core isotopic records with their typical succession of abrupt temperature rises and gradual coolings (the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles). The most notable feature was the contemporaneous changes in surface and bottom water conditions and circulation that appeared tightly coupled with the rapid climate fluctuations. Warm episodes (‘interstadials’) were appeared with higher sea surface temperatures and thermohaline convection in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. The Polar Front was located north of the ENAM93-21 site. Cold episodes (‘stadials’) were associated with an increase in the input of melting Fennoscandian icebergs, low sea surface temperature and salinity, and no thermohaline convection in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. Intermediate waters changed to an estuarine mode at the Faeroe Margin with a reversed flow pattern through the Faeroe-Shetland Channel. The Polar Front was located south of the ENAM93-21 site.