Synchronous millennial-scale climatic changes in the Great Basin and the North Atlantic during the last interglacial

Abstract

Stalagmites from Goshute Cave, located in the Great Basin of the western United States, preserve ~20,000 yr of millennial-scale oxygen isotopic variability during marine isotope stages 5c and 5b, similar in timing and structure to Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events 23–21 from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 record. That D-O interstades 23–21 were of longer duration than many of the later D-O events, coupled with the asymmetric shape of the D-O oxygen isotope curve, and the direct U-Th dating of the Goshute Cave stalagmites, allows for an improved understanding of the synchroneity of climatic changes between the western continental United States and the North Atlantic. Eastern Pacifi c–atmosphere interactions are a likely mechanism for transmission of millennial-scale climate variability into the Great Basin.