Past Temperatures Directly from the Greenland Ice Sheet

Abstract

A Monte Carlo inverse method has been used on the temperature profiles measured down through the Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP) borehole, at the summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and the Dye 3 borehole 865 kilometers farther south. The result is a 50,000-year-long temperature history at GRIP and a 7000-year history at Dye 3. The Last Glacial Maximum, the Climatic Optimum, the Medieval Warmth, the Little Ice Age, and a warm period at 1930 A.D. are resolved from the GRIP reconstruction with the amplitudes –23 kelvin, +2.5 kelvin, +1 kelvin, –1 kelvin, and +0.5 kelvin, respectively. The Dye 3 temperature is similar to the GRIP history but has an amplitude 1.5 times larger, indicating higher climatic variability there. The calculated terrestrial heat flow density from the GRIP inversion is 51.3 milliwatts per square meter.

Keywords

Greenland ice sheetGeologyIce coreIce sheetGroenlandiaBoreholeGlacial periodAmplitudeClimatologyAtmospheric sciencesOceanographyGeomorphologyPhysicsPaleontology

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Publication Info

Year: 1998
Type: article
Volume: 282
Issue: 5387
Pages: 268-271
Citations: 1096
Access: Closed

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APA Style

                            
                                
                                    Dorthe Dahl‐Jensen, 
                                
                                    Klaus Mosegaard, 
                                
                                    N. Gundestrup
                                
                                et al.
                            
                            (1998). 
                            Past Temperatures Directly from the Greenland Ice Sheet. 
                            Science
                            , 282
                            (5387)
                            , 268-271.
                            https://doi.org/10.1126/science.282.5387.268
                        

Identifiers

DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5387.268