Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

East Antarctica - Abrupt Climate Warming in the Early Holocene

In this paper the authors¹ report that at the Amery Oasis, East Antarctica, there is documentation in the geochemical record from a lacustrine sediment sequence, of a warming event on a centennial-scale that occurred between 8,600-8,400 cal BP. In this core the content of organic carbon, the C/S ratio and the rate of sedimentation have values that are distinctly raised about 8,500 BP, which reflect relatively warm conditions, that are ice-free, leading to well ventilated conditions in the lake and a considerable deposition rate of organic matter on the floor of the lake, from both allochthonous and autochthonous sources. Occurring concurrently with this abrupt warming event were warm conditions reported from the Southern Ocean, though the climate of central East Antarctica remained cold. The authors¹ suggest the comparison of variability, both spatial and temporal, of warm climatic periods that are documented in various terrestrial, marine, and glacial archives from East Antarctica elucidates the uniqueness of the warming event on a centennial scale in the Amery Oasis. They also discuss a possible correlation between the Amery warming event and the abrupt climatic deterioration event at about 8,200 cal BP [the 8,200 Year Event] in the Northern Hemisphere.

Sources & Further reading

Cremer, Holger, Oliver Heiri, Bernd Wagner, and Friederike Wagner-Cremer. "Abrupt Climate Warming in East Antarctica During the Early Holocene." Quaternary Science Reviews 26, no. 15–16 (8// 2007): 2012-18.