by Jean Jouzel
We hope that the reader will have recognized the path illustrated by the following quotation from Théodore Monod, a great explorer of the hot deserts: “Until the nineteenth century, scientists were adventurers in the noble sense of the term, because the exploration of the planet hadn’t ended….. There are no more islands to discover; we must now seek to know how the world that surrounds us functions and above all how man will behave with regard to this little, so fragile ball turning in the immensity of the universe.” 2
Our behavior “with regard to this little ball” is truly the question raised at present by climate warming. A recent report of the UN on the environment (Nairobi, October 25, 2007) 3 made it a priority among the problems that our civilization must resolve. In this context, “the destiny of polar regions is crucial for the planet.” We hope that readers have reached this conclusion from reading this book.
Let us repeat: climate warming is one of the great challenges facing our civilization today, and the polar ice is a witness to and an essential actor in it. These are good reasons for ice researchers to be concerned, well beyond the recent International Polar Year, with the state of health of the polar regions, those sentinels of our environment.
NOTES
Preface
1. Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (New York: Viking, 2004), 212.
2. Ibid., 21.
Chapter 1
1. John Mercer, “West Antarctic Ice Sheet and CO2 Greenhouse Effect: A Threat of Disaster,” Nature 271 (1978): 321–25.
Chapter 2
1. Bernard Francou and Christian Vincent, Les glaciers à l’épreuve du climat (Belin : IRD Éditions, 2007).
2. Chester Langway, “The History of Early Polar Ice Cores,” Cold Regions Science and Technology (2008), doi: 10016/j.coldegions.2008.01.001.
3. Michiel van den Broecke et al., “Partitioning Recent Greenland Mass Loss,” Science 326 (2009): 984–86.
4. Isabella Velicogna et al., “Increasing Rates of Ice Mass Loss from the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets Revealed by GRACE,” Geophysical Research Letters 36 (2009): L19503.
Chapter 3
1. John Imbrie and Katherine Palmer Imbrie, Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986).
2. Joseph Kirschvink, The Proterozoic Biosphere: A Multidisciplinary Study, ed. J. W. Schopf and C. C. Klein (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 51–52.
3. Yannick Donnadieu et al., “A ‘Snowball Earth’ Climate Triggered by Continental Break-up through Changes in Runoff,” Nature 428 (2004): 303–6.
4. Robert de Conto and David Pollard, “A Coupled Climate-Ice Sheet Modeling Approach to the Early Cenozoic History of the Antarctic Ice Sheet,” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 198 (2003): 39–52.
5. Milutin Milankovitch, Kanon der Erdbestrahlung und Seine Andwendungauf das Eiszeitenproblem, Royal Serbian Academy Special Publications 33 (Belgrade: Mihaila Ćurčića, 1941): 132; translated into English in 1969.
6. Jim Hays, John Imbrie, and Nick Shackleton, “Variations in the Earth’s Orbit: Pacemakers of the Ice Ages,” Science 194 (1976): 1121–32.
Chapter 4
1. Claude Lorius and Liliane Merlivat, “Isotopes and Impurities in Snow and Ice,” in Proceedings of the Grenoble Symposium Aug.–Sept. 1975 (Vienna: IAHS, 1977), 125–37.
2. Jean Jouzel and Liliane Merlivat, “Deuterium and Oxygen 18 in Precipitation: Modeling of the Isotopic Effect during Snow Formation,” Journal of Geophysical Research 89 (1984): 11749–57.
3. Gordon Manley, “Central England Temperatures: Monthly Means, 1659–1673,” Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 101, no. 428 (1974): 389–405.
4. Jean-Marc Moisselin et al., “Changements climatiques en France au XXe siècle: Étude des longues séries de données homogénéisées françaises de précipitations et températures,” La Météorologie 38 (2002): 45–56.
5. Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Histoire humaine et comparée du climat, vol. 1, Canicules et glaciers (Paris: Fayard, 2004) and vol. 2, Disettes et révolutions (Paris: Fayard, 2006).
6. Isabelle Chuine et al., “Grape Ripening as a Past Climate Indicator,” Nature 432 (2004): 289–90.
7. Valérie Masson-Delmotte et al., “Changes in European Precipitation Seasonality and in Drought Frequencies Revealed by a Four-Century-Long Tree-Ring Isotopic Record from Brittany, Western France,” Climate Dynamics (2005), doi: 10.1007/s00382-004-0458-1.
8. Joël Guiot et al., “A 140,000-Year Climatic Reconstruction from Two European Pollen Records,” Nature 338 (1989): 309–13.
9. Jacques-Louis de Beaulieu and Maurice Reille, “A Long Upper Pleistocene Pollen Record from Les Echets, near Lyon, France,” Boreas 13 (1984): 111–32.
10. Maurice Reille and Jacques-Louis de Beaulieu, “Long Pleistocene Pollen Record from the Praclaux Crater, South-Central France,” Quaternary Research 44 (1995): 205–15.
11. Denis Didier-Rousseau, “Paleoclimatology of the Achenheim Series: A Malacological Analysis,” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeocology 59 (1987): 293–314.
12. Uli Von Grafenstein et al., “A Mid-European Decadal Climate Record from 15,500 to 5,000 Years BP,” Science 284 (1999): 1654–57.
13. Yongjin Wang et al., “Millennial and Orbital-Scale Changes in the East Asian Monsoon over the Past 224,000 Years,” Nature 451 (2008): 1090–93.
14. Dominique Genty et al., “Precise Dating of Dansgaard-Oeschger Climate Oscillations in Western Europe from Speleothem Data,” Nature 421 (2003): 833–37.
15. Édouard Bard et al., “Calibration of the 14C Time Scale over the Past 30,000 Years Using Mass Spectrometic U/Th Ages from Barbados Corals,” Nature 345 (1990): 405–10.
16. Nick Shackleton, André Berger, and Dick Peltier, “An Alternative Astronomical Calibration of the Lower Pleistocene Timescale Based on ODP Site 677,” Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 81 (1990): 251–70.
17. Jurg Luterbacher et al., “European Seasonal and Annual Temperature Variability,” Science 303 (2004): 1499–1503.
Chapter 5
1. Philippe Ciais and Jean Jouzel, “Deuterium and Oxygen 18 in Precipitation: An Isotopic Model Including Mixed Cloud Processes,” Journal of Geophysical Research 99 (1994): 16793–803.
2. Jean Jouzel et al., “Water Isotopes in Precipitation: Data/Model Comparison for Present-Day and Past Climates,” Quaternary Science Reviews 19, no. 1-5 (2000): 363–79.
3. Françoise Vimeux et al., “New Insights into Southern Hemisphere Temperature Changes from Vostok Ice Cores Using Deuterium Excess Correction over the Last 420,000 Years,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 203 (2002): 829–43.
4. Jeff Severinghaus et al., “Timing of Abrupt Climate Change at the End of the Younger Dryas Interval from Fractionated Gases in Polar Ice,” Nature 391 (1998): 141–46.
5. Michael Bender et al., “The Dole Effect and Its Variation during the Last 130,000 Years as Measured in the Vostok Core,” Global Biogeochemical Cycle 8 (1994): 363–76.
6. Dominique Raynaud et al., “The Local Insolation Signature of Air Content in Antarctic Ice: A New Step toward an Absolute Dating of Ice Records,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 261 (2007): 337–49.
7. Grant Raisbeck et al., “Evidence for Two Intervals of Enhanced Deposition in Antarctic Ice during the Last Glacial Period,” Nature 326 (1987): 273–77.
8. Grant Raisbeck et al., “Absolute Dating of the Last 7,000 Years of the Vostok Ice Core Using 10Be,” Mineralogical Magazine 62A (1998): 1228.
9. Jean Jouzel et al., “Climatic Interpretation of the Recently Extended Vostok Ice Records,” Climate Dynamics 12 (1996): 513–21.
10. Frédéric Parrenin et al., “Dating the Vostok Ice Core by an Inverse Method,” Journal of Geophysicsal Research 106 (2001): 31837–51.
11. Michael Bender, “Orbital Tuning Chronology for the Vostok Climate Record Supported by Trapped Gas Composition,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 204 (2002): 275
–89.
Chapter 6
1. Willi Dansgaard, “Stable Isotopes in Precipitation,” Tellus 16 (1964): 436–68.
2. Willi Dansgaard et al., “Isotopic Distribution in a Greenland Iceberg,” Nature 185 (1960): 232.
3. Willi Dansgaard et al., “One Thousand Centuries of Climatic Record from Camp Century on the Greenland Ice Sheet,” Science 166 (1969): 377–81.
4. Sigfus J. Johnsen, Hank B. Clausen, Willi Dansgaar, and Chester Langway, “Oxygen Isotope Profiles through Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets,” Nature 235, no. 5339 (1972): 429–34, doi: 10.1038/235429a0.
5. Jean Jouzel, Liliane Merlivat, Michel Pourchet, and Claude Lorius, “A Continuous Record of Artificial Tritium Fallout at the South Pole (1954–1978),” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 45 (1979): 188–200.
6. E. Picciotto, X. De Maere, and I. Friedman, “Isotope Composition and Temperature of Formation of Antarctic Snows,” Nature 187 (1960): 857–59.
7. Claude Lorius, Les glaces de l’Antarctique (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1991).
8. Claude Lorius and Liliane Merlivat, “Distribution of Mean Surface Stable Isotope Values in East Antarctica: Observed Changes with Depth in a Coastal Area, in Isotopes and Impurities in Snow and Ice,” Proceedings of the Grenoble Symposium 118 (1977): 127–37.
9. Dominique Raynaud and Claude Lorius, “Climatic Implications of Total Gas Content in Ice at Camp Century,” Nature 243 (1973): 283–84.
10. Jean Jouzel, Liliane Merlivat, and Etienne Roth, “Isotopic Study of Hail,” Journal of Geophysical Research 80 (1975): 5015–30.
11. Claude Lorius et al., “A 30,000 Year Isotope Climatic Record from Antarctic Ice,” Nature 280 (1979): 644–48.
12. Robert Delmas et al., “Polar Ice Evidence That Atmospheric CO2 20,000 BP Was 50% of Present,” Nature 284 (1980): 155–57; Albrecht Neftel et al., “Ice Core Sample Measurements Give Atmospheric CO2 Content during Past 40,000 Years,” Nature 295 (1982): 220–23.
13. Jean-Robert Petit et al., “Ice Age Aerosol Content from East Antarctic Ice Core Samples and Past Wind Strength,” Nature 293 (1981): 391–94.
14. Paul Duval and Claude Lorius, “Crystal Size and Climatic Record Down to the Last Ice-Age from Antarctic Ice,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 48 (1980): 59–64.
15. Michel Legrand et al., “Vostok (Antarctica) Ice Core, Atmospheric Chemistry Change over the Last Climatic Cycle (160,000 Years),” Atmospheric Environment 22 (1988): 317–31.
16. Jean Jouzel, Liliane Merlivat, and Claude Lorius, “Deuterium Excess in an East Antarctic Ice Core Suggests Higher Relative Humidity at the Oceanic Surfaces during the Last Glacial Maximum,” Nature 299, no. 5885 (1982): 588–91.
17. Françoise Yiou et al., “Be-10 in Ice at Vostok Antarctica during the Last Glacial Cycle,” Nature 316 (1985): 616–17.
18. Willi Dansgaard et al., “A New Greenland Deep Ice Core,” Science 218 (1982): 1273–77.
19. Claude Lorius et al., “A 150,000-Year Climatic Record from Antarctic Ice,” Nature 316 (1985): 591–96.
20. Jean Jouzel et al., “Vostok Ice Core: A Continuous Isotope Temperature Record over the Last Climatic Cycle (160,000 Years),” Nature 329 (1987): 402–8; Jean-Marc Barnola, “Vostok Ice Core Provides 160,000-Year Record of Atmospheric CO2,” Nature 329 (1987): 408–14; Christophe Genthon et al., “Vostok Ice Core: Climatic Response to CO2 and Orbital Forcing Changes over the Last Climatic Cycle,” Nature 329 (1987): 414–18.
21. We thank Wally Broecker for sending Jean Jouzel the report of the meeting in Boston.
22. Hideaki Motoyama, “The Second Deep Ice Coring Project at Dome Fuji, Antarctica,” Scientific Drilling 5 (2007): 41–43.
23. Barbara Stenni et al., “Unified Antarctic and Greenland Climate Seesaw during the Last Deglaciation,” Nature Geosciences 4 (2011): 46–49.
24. Eric Steig et al., “A High Resolution Stable Isotope Record from Central West Antarctica Covering the Last 62,000 Years,” Geophysical Research Abstracts 14, EGU2012-10419-1 (2012).
25. North Greenland Ice Core Project Members, “High Resolution Record of Northern Hemisphere Climate Extending into Last Interglacial Period,” Nature 431 (2004): 147–51.
26. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and the NEEM Community, “The NEEM Climate Record” (paper presented at the European Geosciences Union annual meeting, Vienna, April 23–27, 2012).
27. Jean Jouzel et al., “Orbital and Millennial Antarctic Climate Variability over the Past 800,000 Years,” Science 317 (2007): 793–96.
Chapter 7
1. CLIMAP, “The Surface of the Ice-Age Earth,” Science 191 (1976): 1131–37.
2. Michael Bender et al., “Isotopic Composition of Atmospheric O2 in Ice Linked with Deglaciation and Global Primary Productivity,” Nature 318 (1985): 349–52.
3. Jean Jouzel et al., “Deuterium Excess in an East Antarctic Ice Core Suggests Higher Relative Humidity at the Oceanic Surface during the Last Glacial Maximum,” Nature 299 (1982): 588–91.
4. Delmas et al., “Polar Ice Evidence That Atmospheric CO2 20,000 BP Was 50% of Present,” 155–57.
5. Jérôme Chappellaz et al., “Ice-Core Record of Atmospheric Methane over the Past 160,000 Years,” Nature 345 (1990): 127–31.
6. Claude Lorius et al., “Greenhouse Warming, Climate Sensitivity and Ice Core Data,” Nature 347 (1990): 139–45.
7. Jean-Robert Petit et al., “Climate and Atmospheric History of the Past 420,000 Years from the Vostok Ice Core, Antarctica,” Nature 399 (1999): 429–36.
8. Jean-Robert Petit et al., “Paleoclimatological Implications of the Vostok Core Dust Record,” Nature 343 (1990): 56–58.
9. Francis Grousset et al., “Antarctic Ice Core Dusts at 18 Kyr BP: Isotopic Constraints on Origin and Atmospheric Circulation,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 111 (1992): 175–82.
10. Dominique Raynaud et al., “The Record for Marine Stage 11,” Nature 4367 (2005): 39–40.
11. Jean Jouzel et al., “More than 200m Thick of Lake Ice above the Subglacial Lake Vostok, Antarctica,” Science (1999): 2138–41.
Chapter 8
1. Okitsugu Watanabe et al., “Homogeneous Climate Variability across East Antarctica over the Past Three Glacial Cycles,” Nature 422 (2003): 509–12.
2. Gabrielle Dreyfus et al., “Anomalous Flow below 2,700m in the EPICA Dome C Ice Core Detected Using d18O of Atmospheric Oxygen Measurements,” Climate of the Past 3 (2007): 341–53.
3. Frédéric Parrenin et al., “The EDC3 Chronology of the EPICA Dome C Ice Core,” Climate of the Past 3 (2007): 485–97.
4. Grant Raisbeck et al., “Be-10 Evidence for the Matuyama-Brunhes Geomagnetic Reversal in the Dome C Ice Core,” Nature 444 (2006): 82–84.
Chapter 9
1. Willi Dansgaard, Jim White, and Sigfus Johnsen, “The Abrupt Termination of the Younger Dryas Climate Event,” Nature 339 (1989): 532–34.
2. Wally Broecker et al., “Does the Ocean-Atmosphere System Have More than One Mode of Operation?” Nature 315 (1985): 21–26.
3. Hans Oeschger et al., “Late Glacial Climate History from Ice Cores, in Climate Processes and Climate Sensitivity,” in J. E. Hansen and T. Takahashi, eds., American Geophysical Union (Washington, DC: NASA, 1984), 299–306.
4. Sigfus Johnsen et al., “Irregular Glacial Interstadials Recorded in a New Greenland Ice Core,” Nature 359 (1992): 311–13.
5. Édouard Bard et al., “Calibration of the C-14 Timescale over the Past 30,000 Years Using Mass-spectrometric U-Th Ages from Barbados Corals,” Nature 345 (1990): 405–10.
6. Richard Alley et al., “Abrupt Increase in Greenland Snow Accumulation at the End of the Younger Dryas Event,” Nature 362 (1993): 527–29.
7. Uli von Grafenstein et al., “A Mid-European Decadal Isotope-Climate Record from 15,500 to 5,000 Years B.P.,” Science 284 (1999): 1654–57.
8. North GRIP Ice Core Project Members, “High Resolution Record of Northern Hemisphere Climate Extending into the Last Interglacial Period,” Nature 431 (2004): 147–51.
&n
bsp; 9. Willi Dansgaard et al., “Evidence for General Instability of Past Climate from a 250-kyr Ice-Core Record,” Nature 364 (1993): 218–20.
10. GRIP Project Members, “Climatic Instability during the Last Interglacial Period Revealed in the Greenland Summit Ice-Core,” Nature 364 (1993): 203–7.
11. Pieter Grootes et al., “Comparison of the Oxygen Isotope Records from the GISP2 and GRIP Greenland Ice Cores,” Nature 366 (1993): 552–54.
12. Kurt Cuffey et al., “Large Arctic Temperature Change at the Wisconsin-Holocene Glacial Transition,” Science 270 (1995): 455–58; Sigfus Johnsen, S.J., “Greenland Paleotemperatures Derived from GRIP Bore Hole Temperature and Ice Core Isotope Profiles,” Tellus 47B (1995): 624–29.
13. Jeff Severinghaus et al., “Timing of Abrupt Climate Change at the End of the Younger Dryas Interval from Thermally Fractionated Gases in Polar Ice,” Nature 391 (1998): 141–46.
14. C. Lang et al., “16°C Rapid Temperature Variation in Central Greenland, 70,000 Years Ago,” Science 286 (1999): 934–37.
15. Amaelle Landais et al., “Large Temperature Variations over Rapid Climatic Events in Greenland: A Method Based on Air Isotopic Measurements,” CRAS 377 (2005): 947–56.
16. Gerry Bond et al., “Correlations between Climate Records from North Atlantic Sediments and Greenland Ice,” Nature 365 (1993): 143–47.