Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 9.3
GLAMAP 2000 SST
reconstruction of the glacial
Atlantic northern summer.
Arrows indicate major current
for warm). Purple contours
mark glacial shorelines.
Source: Pflaumann et al. (2003)
-90°
-60°
-30°
0°
30°
Summer
Sea Ice
2
80°
2.5
2
2.5
Greenland
Ice Sheet
Scandinavian
Ice Sheet
60°
3.5
Laurentide
Ice Sheet
3.5
4
4
5
6
5
6
8
8
12
12
16
16
20
22
20
30°
24
22
26
28
24
24
22
20
0°
18
26
16
12
24
22
20
10
18
30°
16
14
12
continental areas cooled more than oceanic areas. One
consequence of the increased tropical-temperate latitude
temperature gradient, resulting in greater cooling in
temperate latitudes, would be to increase the pressure
gradient and hence the strength of the westerly circulation.
In Antarctica temperatures derived from ice cores begin
to show a steady increase above existing variability from
about 19,000
BP
. Greenland ice shows a similar pattern,
though the increase is less steady between 18,000
BP
and
14,000
BP
. In the southern Lake District of England,
organic mud was being deposited by 14,500
BP
, indicating
that the ice sheet was beginning to thin rapidly or had
disappeared from the area. The rate of warming was so
sudden that in many cases the vegetation was out of
equilibrium with the climate, as can be deduced by
Postglacial period
The climatic amelioration following the last glacial
maximum was rapid though not without fluctuations.
