Formal definition and dating of the GSSP (Global Stratotype Section and Point) for the base of the Holocene using the Greenland NGRIP ice core,and selected auxiliary records |
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| Authors: | Mike Walker Sigfus Johnsen Sune Olander Rasmussen Trevor Popp Jørgen‐Peder Steffensen Phil Gibbard Wim Hoek John Lowe John Andrews Svante Björck Les C Cwynar Konrad Hughen Peter Kershaw Bernd Kromer Thomas Litt David J Lowe Takeshi Nakagawa Rewi Newnham Jakob Schwander |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Wales, Lampeter, UK;2. Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark;3. Stable Isotope Laboratory, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA;4. Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK;5. Department of Physical Geography, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands;6. Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK;7. Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA;8. GeoBiosphere Science Centre, Quaternary Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden;9. Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada;10. Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA;11. School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Victoria, Australia;12. Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany;13. Institute for Palaeontology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany;14. Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand;15. Department of Geography, University of Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK;16. School of Geography, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK;17. Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland |
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| Abstract: | The Greenland ice core from NorthGRIP (NGRIP) contains a proxy climate record across the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary of unprecedented clarity and resolution. Analysis of an array of physical and chemical parameters within the ice enables the base of the Holocene, as reflected in the first signs of climatic warming at the end of the Younger Dryas/Greenland Stadial 1 cold phase, to be located with a high degree of precision. This climatic event is most clearly reflected in an abrupt shift in deuterium excess values, accompanied by more gradual changes in δ18O, dust concentration, a range of chemical species, and annual layer thickness. A timescale based on multi‐parameter annual layer counting provides an age of 11 700 calendar yr b2 k (before AD 2000) for the base of the Holocene, with a maximum counting error of 99 yr. A proposal that an archived core from this unique sequence should constitute the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Holocene Series/Epoch (Quaternary System/Period) has been ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences. Five auxiliary stratotypes for the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary have also been recognised. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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| Keywords: | Holocene boundary Global Stratotype Section and Point NGRIP ice core auxiliary stratotypes |
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