Oxygen-isotope wiggle matching as a tool for synchronising ice-core and terrestrial records over Termination 1

Abstract

In NW Europe, the large number of terrestrial records that are now available from Termination 1 (15–10 kcal yr BP) form the basis for a highly detailed picture of Lateglacial environmental change. Nevertheless, the Greenland oxygen-isotope records (GRIP/GISP2) are still regarded as the best high-resolution climate proxy for the North Atlantic region. In order to evaluate spatial contrasts and leads and lags in the climate system, integration of ice-core, marine and terrestrial records is becoming increasingly important (INTIMATE objectives). However, comparisons between different environments require a common time-scale for the proxy climate records. Stable isotope analyses performed on Lateglacial lacustrine calcareous deposits in The Netherlands provide a terrestrial oxygen-isotope record, comparable to that from the Greenland ice core. These atmospherically controlled lacustrine oxygen-isotope signals not only constitute an independent palaeoclimatic proxy, but provide the basis for synchronising records from these environments as well. More over, this synchronisation reveals some remarkable aspects concerning the timing of the oxygen isotope and palynological events as recorded in The Netherlands. Above all, oxygen-isotope wiggle matching offers a means of correlating terrestrial and ice-core records.