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A temperature snapshot from MIS 5c in southeastern Alaska
  • Paul Wilcox,
  • Christoph Spötl,
  • R. Lawrence Edwards
Paul Wilcox
University of Innsbruck

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Christoph Spötl
University of Innsbruck
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R. Lawrence Edwards
U. Minnesota
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Abstract

Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5c, between ~106,000 and ~93,000 years ago, represents an important warm period on Earth in which the current anthropogenic warming can be contextualized. Although viewed as a pronounced interstadial, its climate expression is regionally disparate, with different regions on Earth showing evidence of either cooler conditions than modern-day or warmer conditions than modern-day. It is therefore important to expand temperature reconstructions to different regions on Earth to gain a better picture of climate dynamics during MIS 5c. In Alaska, there are no quantitative temperature reconstructions for MIS 5c, vastly limiting our knowledge of temperature changes in this climatically sensitive high-latitude region. Here, we fill-in this gap by providing the first quantitative temperatures from MIS 5c in Alaska using hydrogen isotopes from fluid inclusions in precisely dated speleothems. We find that regional temperatures during MIS 5c were within error of modern-day (2021 CE) temperatures, likely representing the most recent time period that regional temperatures were as high as modern-day.
28 Nov 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
03 Dec 2023Published in ESS Open Archive