Were Short Warm Periods Typical for Transitions to Glacial Epochs?

ScienceDaily ^ | Mar. 7, 2010 | German and Russian climate researchers

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

At the end of the last interglacial epoch, around 115,000 years ago, there were significant climate fluctuations. In Central and Eastern Europe, the slow transition from the Eemian Interglacial to the Weichselian Glacial was marked by a growing instability in vegetation trends with possibly at least two warming events. This is the finding of German and Russian climate researchers who have evaluated geochemical and pollen analyses of lake sediments in Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Russia.

Writing in Quaternary International, scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the Saxon Academy of Sciences (SAW) in Leipzig and the Russian Academy of Sciences say that a short warming event at the very end of the last interglacial period marked the final transition to the ice age.

The Eemian Interglacial was the last interglacial epoch before the current one, the Holocene. It began around 126,000 years ago, ended around 115,000 years ago and is named after the river Eem in the Netherlands. The followed Weichselian Glacial ended around 15,000 years ago is the most recent glacial epoch named after the Polish river Weichsel. At its peak around 21,000 years ago, the glaciers stretched as far as the south of Berlin (Brandenburg Stadium).

The researchers studied lake sediments to reconstruct the climate history of the Eemian Interglacial, since deposits on river and lake beds can build up a climate archive over the years. The sediment samples came from lakes that existed at the time, ........

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

And we are overdue for the onset of a new Ice Age....

That's worse news than any news that we are warming up.

Although I think that we have been in a Global Warming streak over a couple of decades (not "Anthropogenic Global Warming, however...), I believe that we're going to see a decade or more of colder winters (and perhaps cooler summers) which is not necessarily good news, but "it happens"... regardless.

After that we'll probably go into a swing back up to Global Warming again.

I say that on the basis of the low sunspot activity that we've had and how that affects the climate (you can see it in the video documentary above).

You'll also note that other scientists have attributes some climate changes to the ocean currents, and that could very well have an additional effect, along with the sunspot activity.

The other article above also notes the effects of volcanoes on the planet's weather systems. Those are all factors -- and none of them are factors related to the human beings on this planet.

Thanks for pinging me to the thread, and that other FReeper article you linked to is good. Thanks for that.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Ice Age coming?

That’s for Satin Doll.

[TigersEye]

"Detailed studies of these phenomena are important for understanding the current controversial discussed climate trend so that we can assess the human contribution to climate change with more certainty," explains Dr Frank W. Junge of the SAW.

The certain facts of climatological history presented in this article make it rather apparent that even a concerted effort on man's part to warm the planet would amount to little more than a duck fart in a hurricane against the inevitable natural plunge back into a glacial period.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I’ve read so much in the last few months,,,, was it 2,500 years overdue?

[SunkenCiv]

similar topics:

• New Study Says Global Warming May Be Signal of Impending Ice Age
• The big picture: 65 million years of temperature swings
• Were short warm periods typical for transitions between interglacial and glacial epochs?
• Lessons From an Interglacial Past
• How Well Do Scientists Understand How Changes in Earth's Orbit Affect Natural Climate Trends?

sidebars:

• 'Snowball Earth': Glaciers, ice packs once met at Equator
• Ice Once Covered the Equator
• Cold And Ice, Not Heat, Episodically Gripped Tropical Regions 300 Million Years Ago
• Geologists Look for Answers in Antarctica: Did Ice Exist at Equator Some 300 Million Years Ago?

Thanks Ernest_at_the_Beach.

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[Mike Darancette]

The crowing cock is convinced that the sun would not rise but for his efforts.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

And we are overdue for the onset of a new Ice Age....

Not to worry! We can just follow Jimmy Carter's advice and put on a sweater.