Researchers look for links among paleoclimate events

Abstract

Several peculiar features appear in climate‐related records at about 8000 years BP and are occasionally referred to as the 8‐ka events. For example, paleolake data from intertropical Africa show a drop in water levels [e.g., Gasse and Van Campo, 1994], and the Antarctic Byrd ice‐core record reveals a decrease in atmospheric CO2 of about 40 ppm [Neftel et al., 1988]. Similarly, detailed paleoceanographic studies in the northwest North Atlantic reveal a decrease in primary productivity and burial rates of biogenic carbonates at precisely 8000 years BP [Hillaire‐Marcel et al., 1994], and the oxygen and deuterium values in Greenland ice show at least one sharp and short‐lived decrease [Johnsen et al., 1992].