Millennial variability is a robust feature of many paleoclimate records, at least throughout the last several glacial cycles. Here we use the mean signal from Antarctic climate events 1 to 4 to probe the EPICA Dome C temperature proxy reconstruction through the last 500 ka for similar millennial-scale events. We find that clusters of millennial events occurred in a regular fashion over half of the time during this with a mean recurrence interval of 21 kyr. We find that there is no consistent link between ice-rafted debris deposition and millennial variability. Instead we speculate that changes in the zonality of atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic form a viable alternative to freshwater release from icebergs as a trigger for millennial variability. We suggest that millennial changes in the zonality of atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic are linked to precession via sea-ice feedbacks and that this relationship is modified by the presence of the large, Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during glacial periods.

West: -14.4208 East: -14.4208 North: 55.2906 South: 55.2906

Expedition: 162

Site: 162-980

Part of special issue no. 29, Retrospective views on our planet's future - PAGES open science meeting 2009, edited by Kiefer, T., et al., http://www.clim-past.net/special_issue29.html; published in Climate of the Past Discussion: 29 January 2010, http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/19/2010/cpd-6-19-2010.html; accessed in Oct., 2010; abstract: doi:10.5194/cp-6-295-2010

Provider: SEDIS Publication Catalogue

Data set link: http://sedis.iodp.org/pub-catalogue/index.php?id=2011-000638 (c.f. for more detailed metadata)

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