Atmospheric composition 1 million years ago from blue ice in the Allan Hills, Antarctica

John A. Higgins; Andrei V. Kurbatov; Nicole E. Spaulding; Ed Brook; Douglas S. Introne; Laura M. Chimiak; Yuzhen Yan; Paul A. Mayewski; Michael L. Bender

doi:10.1073/pnas.1420232112

New Research In

Edited by Mark H. Thiemens, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved April 16, 2015 (received for review December 1, 2014)

Significance

Bubbles of ancient air trapped in ice cores permit the direct reconstruction of atmospheric composition and allow us to link greenhouse gases and global climate over the last 800 ky. Here, we present new ice core records of atmospheric composition roughly 1 Ma from a shallow ice core drilled in the Allan Hills blue ice area, Antarctica. These records confirm that interglacial CO₂ concentrations decreased by 800 ka. They also show that the link between CO₂ and Antarctic temperature extended into the warmer world of the mid-Pleistocene.

Abstract

Here, we present direct measurements of atmospheric composition and Antarctic climate from the mid-Pleistocene (∼1 Ma) from ice cores drilled in the Allan Hills blue ice area, Antarctica. The 1-Ma ice is dated from the deficit in ⁴⁰Ar relative to the modern atmosphere and is present as a stratigraphically disturbed 12-m section at the base of a 126-m ice core. The 1-Ma ice appears to represent most of the amplitude of contemporaneous climate cycles and CO₂ and CH₄ concentrations in the ice range from 221 to 277 ppm and 411 to 569 parts per billion (ppb), respectively. These concentrations, together with measured δD of the ice, are at the warm end of the field for glacial–interglacial cycles of the last 800 ky and span only about one-half of the range. The highest CO₂ values in the 1-Ma ice fall within the range of interglacial values of the last 400 ka but are up to 7 ppm higher than any interglacial values between 450 and 800 ka. The lowest CO₂ values are 30 ppm higher than during any glacial period between 450 and 800 ka. This study shows that the coupling of Antarctic temperature and atmospheric CO₂ extended into the mid-Pleistocene and demonstrates the feasibility of discontinuously extending the current ice core record beyond 800 ka by shallow coring in Antarctic blue ice areas.

Footnotes

↵¹To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jahiggin{at}princeton.edu.

Author contributions: A.V.K., P.A.M., and M.L.B. designed research; J.A.H., A.V.K., N.E.S., L.M.C., and Y.Y. performed research; E.B., D.S.I., P.A.M., and M.L.B. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; J.A.H., A.V.K., N.E.S., E.B., L.M.C., P.A.M., and M.L.B. analyzed data; and J.A.H. and M.L.B. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1420232112/-/DCSupplemental.