Project 2004 my: Terminations Five to Zero (T5-0)

Abstract

Understanding past glacial terminations requires high-precision paleoenvironmental records and accurate Earth system modelling to analyse interactions among climate, oceans, ice sheets, the biosphere, and the carbon cycle. Precise chronologies are crucial for comparing observational records, validating models, and simulating key climate forcings, particularly before Termination I when radiocarbon dating is ineffective. While Terminations I and II have received recent chronological reviews, Terminations III–V lack comparable assessments. This highlights the need for updated, integrative expertise to refine chronologies by combining both data-driven and model-derived spatial patterns. The success of the International Focus Group’s (IFG) goals hinges on robust chronologies from Termination V to the present.

Scientific questions:

1) What is the fastest rate of warming observed during the past 5 terminations, and what caused it? What mechanisms of ice sheet change drove the fastest rates of sea level rise in the past 5 Terminations?

2) How well do climate models capture the temporal (and spatial) scales of environmental change during terminations inferred from paleoclimate data sets?

Project Leaders:

• Ruza Ivanovic, University of Leeds, UK
• Lorraine Lisiecki,University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
• Heather Stoll, ETH Zurich, Switzerland