Speleothems reveal 500,000 year history of Siberian permafrost

Anton Vaks; Oksana V. Gutareva; Sebastian Breitenbach; E. Avirmed; Andrew Mason; Alex Thomas; Alexander Osinzev; Aleksandr Kononov; Gideon M. Henderson

doi:10.1126/science.1228729

Speleothems reveal 500,000 year history of Siberian permafrost

Anton Vaks, Oksana V. Gutareva, Sebastian Breitenbach, E. Avirmed, Andrew Mason, Alex Thomas, Alexander Osinzev, Aleksandr Kononov, Gideon M. Henderson

Geography and Environmental Sciences Department

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

104 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Soils in permafrost regions contain twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and permafrost has an important influence on the natural and built environment at high northern latitudes. The response of permafrost to warming climate is uncertain and occurs on time scales longer than those assessed by direct observation. We dated periods of speleothem growth in a north-south transect of caves in Siberia to reconstruct the history of permafrost in past climate states. Speleothem growth is restricted to full interglacial conditions in all studied caves. In the northernmost cave (at 60°N), no growth has occurred since Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 11. Growth at that time indicates that global climates only slightly warmer than today are sufficient to thaw extensive regions of permafrost.

Original language	English
Journal	Science
Volume	340
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1228729
Publication status	Published - 2013

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title = "Speleothems reveal 500,000 year history of Siberian permafrost",

abstract = "Soils in permafrost regions contain twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and permafrost has an important influence on the natural and built environment at high northern latitudes. The response of permafrost to warming climate is uncertain and occurs on time scales longer than those assessed by direct observation. We dated periods of speleothem growth in a north-south transect of caves in Siberia to reconstruct the history of permafrost in past climate states. Speleothem growth is restricted to full interglacial conditions in all studied caves. In the northernmost cave (at 60°N), no growth has occurred since Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 11. Growth at that time indicates that global climates only slightly warmer than today are sufficient to thaw extensive regions of permafrost.",

author = "Anton Vaks and Gutareva, {Oksana V.} and Sebastian Breitenbach and E. Avirmed and Andrew Mason and Alex Thomas and Alexander Osinzev and Aleksandr Kononov and Henderson, {Gideon M.}",

year = "2013",

doi = "10.1126/science.1228729",

language = "English",

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T1 - Speleothems reveal 500,000 year history of Siberian permafrost

AU - Vaks, Anton

AU - Gutareva, Oksana V.

AU - Breitenbach, Sebastian

AU - Avirmed, E.

AU - Mason, Andrew

AU - Thomas, Alex

AU - Osinzev, Alexander

AU - Kononov, Aleksandr

AU - Henderson, Gideon M.

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Soils in permafrost regions contain twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and permafrost has an important influence on the natural and built environment at high northern latitudes. The response of permafrost to warming climate is uncertain and occurs on time scales longer than those assessed by direct observation. We dated periods of speleothem growth in a north-south transect of caves in Siberia to reconstruct the history of permafrost in past climate states. Speleothem growth is restricted to full interglacial conditions in all studied caves. In the northernmost cave (at 60°N), no growth has occurred since Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 11. Growth at that time indicates that global climates only slightly warmer than today are sufficient to thaw extensive regions of permafrost.

AB - Soils in permafrost regions contain twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and permafrost has an important influence on the natural and built environment at high northern latitudes. The response of permafrost to warming climate is uncertain and occurs on time scales longer than those assessed by direct observation. We dated periods of speleothem growth in a north-south transect of caves in Siberia to reconstruct the history of permafrost in past climate states. Speleothem growth is restricted to full interglacial conditions in all studied caves. In the northernmost cave (at 60°N), no growth has occurred since Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 11. Growth at that time indicates that global climates only slightly warmer than today are sufficient to thaw extensive regions of permafrost.

U2 - 10.1126/science.1228729

DO - 10.1126/science.1228729

M3 - Article

SN - 0036-8075

VL - 340

JO - Science

JF - Science

ER -

Speleothems reveal 500,000 year history of Siberian permafrost

Abstract

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