Old Rocks
Diamond Member
Speleothems Reveal 500,000-Year History of Siberian Permafrost
A. Vaks,1* O. S. Gutareva,2 S. F. M. Breitenbach,3 E. Avirmed,4 A. J. Mason,1 A. L. Thomas,1 A. V. Osinzev,5 A. M. Kononov,2 G. M. Henderson1
1Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3AN, UK. 2Institute of Earths Crust, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, 128 Lermontova Street, Irkutsk 664033, Russia. 3Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETHZ), CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland. 4 Institute of Geography, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, 210620 UlaanBaatar, Mongolia. 5Arabica Speleological Club, Mamin-Sibiryak Street, Box 350, Irkutsk 554082, Russia.
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]
Soils in permafrost regions contain twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and permafrost has an important influence of the natural and built environment at high northern latitudes. The response of permafrost to warming climate is uncertain and occurs on timescales longer than has been assessed by direct observation. In this study, we date periods of speleothem growth in a north-south transect of caves in Siberia to reconstruct the history of permafrost in past climate states. Speleothem growth is restricted to full interglacial conditions in all studied caves. In the northernmost cave (at 60°N), no growth has occurred since Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 11. Growth at that time indicates that global climates only slightly warmer than today are sufficient to thaw significant regions of permafrost
http://www.climategeology.ethz.ch/publications/2013_Vaks_et_al.Scienceexpress.pdf
A. Vaks,1* O. S. Gutareva,2 S. F. M. Breitenbach,3 E. Avirmed,4 A. J. Mason,1 A. L. Thomas,1 A. V. Osinzev,5 A. M. Kononov,2 G. M. Henderson1
1Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3AN, UK. 2Institute of Earths Crust, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, 128 Lermontova Street, Irkutsk 664033, Russia. 3Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETHZ), CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland. 4 Institute of Geography, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, 210620 UlaanBaatar, Mongolia. 5Arabica Speleological Club, Mamin-Sibiryak Street, Box 350, Irkutsk 554082, Russia.
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]
Soils in permafrost regions contain twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and permafrost has an important influence of the natural and built environment at high northern latitudes. The response of permafrost to warming climate is uncertain and occurs on timescales longer than has been assessed by direct observation. In this study, we date periods of speleothem growth in a north-south transect of caves in Siberia to reconstruct the history of permafrost in past climate states. Speleothem growth is restricted to full interglacial conditions in all studied caves. In the northernmost cave (at 60°N), no growth has occurred since Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 11. Growth at that time indicates that global climates only slightly warmer than today are sufficient to thaw significant regions of permafrost
http://www.climategeology.ethz.ch/publications/2013_Vaks_et_al.Scienceexpress.pdf
