Abstract
Northern Hemisphere insolation intensity is roughly in phase with Southern Hemisphere climate proxies, leading to a common conclusion that northern insolation forces southern climate during the Late Quaternary. However, mid-latitude Southern Hemisphere records place the advance of Patagonian and New Zealand glaciers before the Last Glacial Maximum (29,000–18,000 years ago) by several millennia. To resolve the cause(s) of nearly synchronous global climate change requires continuous archives of mid-latitude glacial activity for the last glacial cycle. Here we assess the position of the Patagonian Ice Sheet’s marine-terminating margin over the last ~89,000 years using a sedimentary-beryllium-isotope record from the Chilean margin to track the proximity of local glaciers. We find that glaciations and deglaciations are synchronous with or precede Northern Hemisphere ice sheets by thousands of years. Glacial expansion was driven by equatorward migration and strengthening of the southern westerly winds, linked to global cooling and a steeper meridional temperature gradient. Glacial terminations occurred when global warming coincided with increasing obliquity and dramatic Northern Hemisphere cooling. Our results suggest that, on orbital timescales, a complex interaction between mean global climate, obliquity and interhemispheric teleconnections could have led to near-synchronous global ice sheet evolution through displacements of the southern westerlies.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available as four tables via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10608111 (ref. 87). The geological materials used in this study are archived at the Lamont-Doherty Core Repository (https://corerepository.ldeo.columbia.edu/). For guidance in requesting samples, contact S.C.B. (sbova@sdsu.edu) before submitting a request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank H. Matsuzaki (University of Tokyo) and members of MALT for their assistance with accelerator mass spectrometer measurements. We thank F. von Blanckenburg for assistance with the 10Be palaeo-production correction. We acknowledge postdoctoral fellowships (P18791 to A.D.S.) and grants (20H00193 and 23KK0013 to Y.Y.; 18F18791 to Y.Y. and A.D.S.) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. We acknowledge grants from the National Science Foundation (OCE 1756241 to S.C.B. and Y.R.).
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A.D.S., Y.Y., S.C.B. and Y.R. designed the study. A.D.S. carried out the age-model determination and beryllium isotope analysis, prepared the figures and wrote the initial manuscript. Y.M. and T.A. assisted with 10Be and 9Be measurements, respectively. V.J.C. and H.R. conducted the XRF analysis. V.J.C. conducted the benthic carbon isotope analysis. A.D.S., Y.Y., S.C.B. and Y.R. acquired funding to support this study. Y.Y. provided supervision. S.C.B., Y.R. and L.B.C. organized and managed the expedition. The Expedition 379T science party contributed to the collection and generation of shipboard data. All named authors contributed to the interpretation of data and revisions of the manuscript.
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Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 Age-depth model for Site J1002.
Age-depth model for Site J1002 based on the BIGMACS modelling routine51. (a) Age vs. depth relationship for Site J1002. Median age model and 95% confidence interval is represented by the red and dashed black lines, respectively. (b) The 95% confidence interval width vs. depth. (c) Shifted and scaled mean benthic δ18O (red stars) with 95% error bars (n = 1000, red lines) alongside mean values for the deep Pacific δ18O stack50 (black line). Blue triangles in b and c represent the position of radiocarbon ages.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Beryllium isotope record comparison.
Beryllium isotope records (mean values) from (a) Site J1002 (this study, black circles, 2σ propagated uncertainty), (b) the west equatorial Pacific Ocean (normalized data, orange, 2σ uncertainty)23 and (c) the mixed North Atlantic and Mediterranean outflow (red, 10 % uncertainty)15. (d) The relative paleo-production of 10Be converted from paleomagnetic reference records of the geomagnetic dipole moment64 prior to 10 ka and the stacked record of 10Be production65 post 10 ka following von Blanckenburg et al.15 (yellow, 1σ uncertainty). (e) The benthic oxygen isotope stack from Lisiecki and Raymo55 is presented for comparison (blue). The mean 10Be/9Be ratios from Site J1002 (dashed grey line) are presented along with values that have been corrected using the relative 10Be paleo-production record presented in d.
Extended Data Fig. 3 Benthic carbon isotope values for Site J1002.
Carbon isotope values for the benthic foraminifera, Uvigerina peregrina, from Site J1002 (Table S4) offset to DIC values by accounting for habitat effects (black circles)67. The blue and yellow boxes represent estimated values for Antarctic Intermediate Water72 (AAIW) and Pacific Deep Water/Circumpolar Deep Water71 (PDW/CDW), respectively. The inset displays the δ13C vs. 10Be/9Be relationship.
Extended Data Fig. 4 Sedimentation rates for Site J1002.
(a) Sedimentation rates (orange diamonds) and beryllium isotope ratios (black circles) for Site J1002. (b) Sedimentation rates vs. 10Be/9Be above (light orange diamonds) and below (dark orange squares) 100 m CCSF-A (core composite depth below seafloor). Relationships presented in b are significant to 95% confidence intervals.
Extended Data Fig. 5 Comparison between beryllium isotope and global sea level records.
Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) reconstructions (blue) for the Last Glacial Maximum76 (a) and last glacial cycle77 (b) with Be isotope ratios (black circles) from Site J1002 (this study). The inset displays significant (p = <0.05) relationships between sea level and 10Be/9Be ratios. Uncertainties for median ages are 1σ (n = 1000).
Extended Data Fig. 6 Bathymetric data for offshore Chile at 46°S.
GEBCO (a) and ETOPO1 (b) bathymetric data for offshore Chile at 46°S. A rough estimate for an 80 m and 120 m decrease in sea level relative to the shelf edge are presented using grey dashed lines. The green circle represents the sampling location for Site J1002.
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Sproson, A.D., Yokoyama, Y., Miyairi, Y. et al. Near-synchronous Northern Hemisphere and Patagonian Ice Sheet variation over the last glacial cycle. Nat. Geosci. 17, 450–457 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01436-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01436-y