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| Titel |
Stable Isotopes of Ice: the Legacy of Willi Dansgaard |
| VerfasserIn |
J. W. C. White, S. J. Johnson |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2012
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 14 (2012) |
| Datensatznummer |
250071683
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Stable isotope ratios of ice, D/H and 18O/16O are one of the key climate indicators measured
in ice cores. These isotope ratios vary with temperature, a relationship based on
physical principles backed up by many observations. The combination of these isotope
ratios, expressed as the difference between the delta values with δ18O scaled by
a factor of eight, is called the deuterium excess (d=δD-8*δ18O). This parameter
varies primarily as a function of the conditions of evaporation of the parent moisture
for snow, yielding a signal of ocean conditions measured in the ice. In his classic
1964 paper in Tellus, Willi Dansgaard laid out the theoretical and observational
basis for using stable isotope ratios in ice cores as paleo-environmental tools. This
paper, cited over 2,200 times, and written nearly 50 years ago, is one of the key
foundational papers in paleoclimatology, and remains a must read for any student of
stable isotope geochemistry. In this talk we will explore Dansgaard’s legacy of ice
core climatology, with a focus on his pioneering work in using the full temporal
resolution of ice cores in Greenland to explore climate change on time scales of
years to decades. While Dansgaard began his career applying a clever technique
to a novel medium with the goal of simply trying to understand how our planet
functions, he early on understood the power of ice cores to inform us about human
impacts on the climate system, as well as the power of ice cores to tell us about
natural climate variability on time scales of human interest and impact. Dansgaard’s
body of work is one of the solid pillars on which modern paleoclimatology stands,
and continues to inform us today about modern anthropogenic climate change. |
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