Stalagmites: from Science Application to Museumization

The concept of geoheritage is related to places of geological interest, generally of aesthetic, cultural, socio-economic and/or scientific value. Many geosites are of karstic nature, because of their intrinsic beauty, their singularity and high geodiversity. Caves are among the most visited and economically exploited geological landforms. They constitute geosites as a whole, with their scenic landscapes, hydrogeological importance and the presence of bewildering natural rock and mineral formations including stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones and many other bizarre speleothem shapes. In some cases, a single speleothem, and the palaeoclimate record it contains, can be on its own of extraordinary importance to science. Once studied, these samples are often stored in research institution collections, rarely accessible to the wide public. In this paper, we report on the museumization of a stalagmite that has delivered a unique and exceptionally long glacial climate record from southern Italy, shedding light on the causes that led to the Neanderthal contraction and Modern Human expansion in this mild Mediterranean climate between 45 and 42 thousands years ago. The proposed museumization aims to demonstrate the potential of speleothems, after scientific application, in terms of educational and tourist resources. This approach allows to highlight the scientific importance of karst and cave geosites to the wide public, promoting their conservation and the valorisation of the studied cave-material.

A 120,000-year long climate record from a NW-Greenland deep ice core at ultra-high resolution

We report high resolution measurements of the stable isotope ratios of ancient ice (δ18O, δD) from the North Greenland Eemian deep ice core (NEEM, 77.45° N, 51.06° E). The record covers the period 8–130 ky b2k (y before 2000) with a temporal resolution of ≈0.5 and 7 y at the top and the bottom of the core respectively and contains important climate events such as the 8.2 ky event, the last glacial termination and a series of glacial stadials and interstadials. At its bottom part the record contains ice from the Eemian interglacial. Isotope ratios are calibrated on the SMOW/SLAP scale and reported on the GICC05 (Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005) and AICC2012 (Antarctic Ice Core Chronology 2012) time scales interpolated accordingly. We also provide estimates for measurement precision and accuracy for both δ18O and δD.

Oak Trees Offer a Continuous Climate Record for Central Europe

A method using nonpooled, continuous stable carbon and oxygen isotopes recorded in oak trees benefits climate reconstructions.

Simulation and Projection of Global Mean Surface Temperature Using the Empirical Model of Global Climate and Comparison to CMIP6 GCMs

<p>The Empirical Model of Global Climate (EM-GC) (Canty et al., ACP, 2013, McBride et al., ESDD, 2020) is a multiple linear regression, energy balance model that accounts for the natural influences on global mean surface temperature due to ENSO, the 11-year solar cycle, major volcanic eruptions, as well as the anthropogenic influence of greenhouse gases and aerosols and the efficiency of ocean heat uptake. First, we will analyze the human contribution of global warming from 1975-2014 based on the climate record, also known as the attributable anthropogenic warming rate (AAWR). We will compare the values of AAWR found using the EM-GC with values of AAWR from the CMIP6 multi-model ensemble. Preliminary analysis indicates that over the past three decades, the human component of global warming inferred from the CMIP6 GCMs is larger than the human component of warming from the climate record. Second, we will compare values of equilibrium climate sensitivity inferred from the historical climate record to those determined from CMIP6 GCMs using the Gregory et al., GRL, 2004 method. Third, we will use the future abundances of greenhouse gases and aerosols provided by the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) to project future global mean surface temperature change. We will compare the projections of future temperature anomalies from CMIP6 GCMs to those determined by the EM-GC. We will conclude by assessing the probability of the CMIP6 and EM-GC projections of achieving the Paris Agreement target (1.5°C) and upper limit (2.0°C) for several of the SSP scenarios.</p>

Integral correlation for uneven and differently sampled data, and its application to the Law Dome Antarctic climate record

We present a new simple and efficient method for correlation of unevenly and differently sampled data. This new method overcomes problems with other methods for correlation with non-uniform sampling and is an easy modification to existing correlation based codes. To demonstrate the usefulness of this new method to real-world examples, we apply the method with good success to two glaciological examples to map the ages from a well-dated ice core to a nearby core, and by tracing isochronous layers within the ice sheet measured from ice-penetrating radar between the two ice core sites.