Eemian Explained

The Eemian (also called the last interglacial,[1] Sangamonian, Ipswichian, Mikulin, Kaydaky, Valdivia or Riss-Würm) was the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago and ended about 115,000 years ago.[2] It corresponds to Marine Isotope Stage 5e.[3] Although sometimes referred to as the "last interglacial" (in the "most recent previous" sense of "last"), it was the second-to-latest interglacial period of the current Ice Age, the most recent being the Holocene which extends to the present day (having followed the last glacial period). The prevailing Eemian climate is believed to have been warmer than that of the Holocene.

The Eemian is known as the Ipswichian in the UK, the Mikulin interglacial in Russia, the Valdivia interglacial in Chile and the Riss-Würm interglacial in the Alps. Depending on how a specific publication defines the Sangamonian Stage of North America, the Eemian is equivalent to either all or part of it.


Global temperatures


At the peak of the Eemian, the Northern Hemisphere winters were generally warmer and wetter than now, though some areas were actually slightly cooler than today. The hippopotamus was distributed as far north as the rivers Rhine and Thames.[4] Trees grew as far north as southern Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: currently, the northern limit is further south at Kuujjuaq in northern Quebec. Coastal Alaska was warm enough during the summer due to reduced sea ice in the Arctic Ocean to allow Saint Lawrence Island (now tundra) to have boreal forest, although inadequate precipitation caused a reduction in the forest cover in interior Alaska and Yukon Territory despite warmer conditions.[5] The prairie-forest boundary in the Great Plains of the United States lay further west near Lubbock, Texas, whereas the current boundary is near Dallas. The period closed as temperatures steadily fell to conditions cooler and drier than the present, with a 468-year-long aridity pulse in central Europe 116,000 BC,[6] and by 112,000 BC, a glacial period had returned.

Kaspar et al. (GRL, 2005) performed a comparison of a coupled general circulation model (GCM) with reconstructed Eemian temperatures for Europe. Central Europe (north of the Alps) was found to be 1- warmer than present; south of the Alps, conditions were 1–2 °C cooler than today. The model (generated using observed greenhouse gas concentrations and Eemian orbital parameters) generally reproduces these observations, leading them to conclude that these factors are enough to explain the Eemian temperatures.[7]

A 2018 study based on soil samples from Sokli in northern Finland identified abrupt cold spells ca. 120,000 years ago caused by shifts in the North Atlantic Current, lasting hundreds of years and causing temperature drops of a few degrees and vegetation changes in these regions.[8]

Sea level

Sea level at peak was probably 6mto9mm (20feetto30feetm) higher than today,[9] [10] with Greenland contributing,[11] thermal expansion and mountain glaciers contributing up to,[12] and an uncertain contribution from Antarctica.[13] Global mean sea surface temperatures are thought to have been higher than in the Holocene, but not by enough to explain the rise in sea level through thermal expansion alone, and so melting of polar ice caps must also have occurred. Because of the sea level drop since the Eemian, exposed fossil coral reefs are common in the tropics, especially in the Caribbean and along the Red Sea coastlines. These reefs often contain internal erosion surfaces showing significant sea level instability during the Eemian.

A 2007 study found evidence that the Greenland ice core site Dye 3 was glaciated during the Eemian,[14] which implies that Greenland could have contributed at most 2m (07feet) to sea level rise.[15] [16] Scandinavia was an island due to the inundation of vast areas of northern Europe and the West Siberian Plain.

Definition of the Eemian


See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sudden climate transitions during the Quaternary. Jonathan. Adams. Mark. Maslin. Ellen. Thomas. 2017-01-24. yes. 2016-05-18. Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
  2. 10.1038/nature11789. 23344358. Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core. Nature. 493. 7433. 489–94. 2013. Dahl-Jensen. D.. Albert. M. R.. Aldahan. A.. Azuma. N.. Balslev-Clausen. D.. Baumgartner. M.. Berggren. A. -M.. Bigler. M.. Binder. T.. Blunier. T.. Bourgeois. J. C.. Brook. E. J.. Buchardt. S. L.. Buizert. C.. Capron. E.. Chappellaz. J.. Chung. J.. Clausen. H. B.. Cvijanovic. I.. Davies. S. M.. Ditlevsen. P.. Eicher. O.. Fischer. H.. Fisher. D. A.. Fleet. L. G.. Gfeller. G.. Gkinis. V.. Gogineni. S.. Goto-Azuma. K.. Grinsted. A.. 29. 2013Natur.493..489N.
  3. Marine Isotope Substage 5e and the Eemian Interglacial. 2002. Nicholas J. Shackleton. Maria Fernanda Sanchez-Goni. Delphine Pailler. Yves Lancelot. Elsevier.
  4. van Kolfschoten. Th.. 2000. The Eemian mammal fauna of central Europe. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences. 79. 2/3. 269–281. 2 February 2011. yes. 24 July 2011.
  5. Vegetation and paleoclimate of the last interglacial period, central Alaska
  6. 10.1038/nature03905. 16094365. A late Eemian aridity pulse in central Europe during the last glacial inception. Nature. 436. 7052. 833–6. 2005. Sirocko. F.. Seelos. K.. Schaber. K.. Rein. B.. Dreher. F.. Diehl. M.. Lehne. R.. Jäger. K.. Krbetschek. M.. Degering. D.. 2005Natur.436..833S.
  7. 10.1029/2005GL022456. A model-data comparison of European temperatures in the Eemian interglacial. Geophysical Research Letters. 32. 11. L11703. 2005. Kaspar. F.. Kühl. Norbert. Cubasch. Ulrich. Litt. Thomas. 2005GeoRL..3211703K.
  8. Web site: Slowdown of North Atlantic circulation rocked the climate of ancient northern Europe. Faculty of Science. 2018.
  9. Dutton. A. Lambeck. K. Ice volume and sea level during the last interglacial.. Science. 13 July 2012. 337. 6091. 216–9. 22798610. 10.1126/science.1205749. 2012Sci...337..216D.
  10. Kopp. RE. Simons. FJ. Mitrovica. JX. Maloof. AC. Oppenheimer. M. Probabilistic assessment of sea level during the last interglacial stage.. Nature. 17 December 2009. 462. 7275. 863–7. 20016591. 10.1038/nature08686. 0903.0752. 2009Natur.462..863K.
  11. Stone. E.J. Lundt. D.J. Annan. J.D.. Hargreaves. J.C.. Quantification of Greenland ice-sheet contribution to Last Interglacial sea-level rise. Clim. Past. 2013. 9. 621–639. 10.5194/cp-9-621-2013. 2013CliPa...9..621S.
  12. McKay. Nicholas P.. Overpeck. Jonathan T.. Otto-Bliesner. Bette L.. The role of ocean thermal expansion in Last Interglacial sea level rise. Geophysical Research Letters. July 2011. 38. 14. n/a–n/a. 10.1029/2011GL048280. 2011GeoRL..3814605M.
  13. Scherer. RP. Aldahan. A. Tulaczyk. S. Possnert. G. Engelhardt. H. Kamb. B. Pleistocene collapse of the west antarctic ice sheet. Science. 3 July 1998. 281. 5373. 82–5. 9651249. 10.1126/science.281.5373.82. 1998Sci...281...82S.
  14. 10.1126/science.1141758. 2694912. 17615355. Ancient Biomolecules from Deep Ice Cores Reveal a Forested Southern Greenland. Science. 317. 5834. 111–4. 2007. Willerslev. E.. Cappellini. E.. Boomsma. W.. Nielsen. R.. Hebsgaard. M. B.. Brand. T. B.. Hofreiter. M.. Bunce. M.. Poinar. H. N.. Dahl-Jensen. D.. Johnsen. S.. Steffensen. J. P.. Bennike. O.. Schwenninger. J. -L.. Nathan. R.. Armitage. S.. De Hoog. C. -J.. Alfimov. V.. Christl. M.. Beer. J.. Muscheler. R.. Barker. J.. Sharp. M.. Penkman. K. E. H.. Haile. J.. Taberlet. P.. Gilbert. M. T. P.. Casoli. A.. Campani. E.. Collins. M. J.. 2007Sci...317..111W.
  15. 10.1038/35007053. 10766239. 2000. Cuffey. K. M.. Substantial contribution to sea-level rise during the last interglacial from the Greenland ice sheet. Nature. 404. 6778. 591–4. Marshall. S. J..
  16. 10.1126/science.1120808. 16556838. Simulating Arctic Climate Warmth and Icefield Retreat in the Last Interglaciation. Science. 311. 5768. 1751–3. 2006. Otto-Bliesner. B. L.. Marshall. Shawn J.. Overpeck. Jonathan T.. Miller. Gifford H.. Hu. Aixue. 2006Sci...311.1751O.