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A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago

A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago
A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago
Geological archives record multiple reversals of Earth’s magnetic poles, but the global impacts of these events, if any, remain unclear. Uncertain radiocarbon calibration has limited investigation of the potential effects of the last major magnetic inversion, known as the Laschamps Excursion [41 to 42 thousand years ago (ka)]. We use ancient New Zealand kauri trees (Agathis australis) to develop a detailed record of atmospheric radiocarbon levels across the Laschamps Excursion. We precisely characterize the geomagnetic reversal and perform global chemistry-climate modeling and detailed radiocarbon dating of paleoenvironmental records to investigate impacts. We find that geomagnetic field minima ~42 ka, in combination with Grand Solar Minima, caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration and circulation, driving synchronous global climate shifts that caused major environmental changes, extinction events, and transformations in the archaeological record.
0036-8075
811-818
Cooper, Alan
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Turney, Chris S.M.
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Palmer, Jonathan
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Hogg, Alan
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McGlone, Matt
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Wilmshurst, Janet
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Lorrey, Andrew M.
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Heaton, Timothy J.
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Russell, James M.
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McCracken, Ken
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Anet, Julien G.
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Rozanov, Eugene
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Friedel, Marina
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Suter, Ivo
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Peter, Thomas
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Muscheler, Raimund
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Adolphi, Florian
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Dosseto, Anthony
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Tyler Faith, J.
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Fenwick, Pavla
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Fogwill, Christopher J.
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Hughen, Konrad
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Lipson, Mathew
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Liu, Jiabo
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Nowaczyk, Norbert
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Rainsley, Eleanor
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Ramsey, Christopher Bronk
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Sebastianelli, Paolo
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Souilmi, Yassine
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Stevenson, Janelle
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Thomas, Zoë
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Tobler, Raymond
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Zech, Roland
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et al.
Cooper, Alan
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Turney, Chris S.M.
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Palmer, Jonathan
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Hogg, Alan
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McGlone, Matt
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Wilmshurst, Janet
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Lorrey, Andrew M.
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Heaton, Timothy J.
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Russell, James M.
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McCracken, Ken
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Anet, Julien G.
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Rozanov, Eugene
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Friedel, Marina
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Suter, Ivo
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Peter, Thomas
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Muscheler, Raimund
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Adolphi, Florian
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Dosseto, Anthony
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Tyler Faith, J.
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Fenwick, Pavla
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Fogwill, Christopher J.
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Hughen, Konrad
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Lipson, Mathew
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Liu, Jiabo
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Nowaczyk, Norbert
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Rainsley, Eleanor
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Ramsey, Christopher Bronk
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Sebastianelli, Paolo
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Souilmi, Yassine
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Stevenson, Janelle
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Thomas, Zoë
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Tobler, Raymond
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Zech, Roland
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Cooper, Alan, Turney, Chris S.M., Palmer, Jonathan and Thomas, Zoë , et al. (2021) A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago. Science, 371 (6531), 811-818. (doi:10.1126/science.abb8677).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Geological archives record multiple reversals of Earth’s magnetic poles, but the global impacts of these events, if any, remain unclear. Uncertain radiocarbon calibration has limited investigation of the potential effects of the last major magnetic inversion, known as the Laschamps Excursion [41 to 42 thousand years ago (ka)]. We use ancient New Zealand kauri trees (Agathis australis) to develop a detailed record of atmospheric radiocarbon levels across the Laschamps Excursion. We precisely characterize the geomagnetic reversal and perform global chemistry-climate modeling and detailed radiocarbon dating of paleoenvironmental records to investigate impacts. We find that geomagnetic field minima ~42 ka, in combination with Grand Solar Minima, caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration and circulation, driving synchronous global climate shifts that caused major environmental changes, extinction events, and transformations in the archaeological record.

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More information

Published date: 19 February 2021
Additional Information: Funding Information: Funding: We thank the Australian Research Council for Discovery Grant and Laureate Fellowship support [DP170104665 and FL140100260 (A.C.) and FL100100195 (C.S.M.T.)], the University of Adelaide Environment Institute, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013–2014 and The Tiama, the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund (contract MFPNIW1803), NIWA, the University of Waikato, the Leverhulme Trust (RF-2019-140\9), the Russian Science Foundation (20-67-46016), and a Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione grant (PZ00P2_180043). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 476051
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/476051
DOI: doi:10.1126/science.abb8677
ISSN: 0036-8075
PURE UUID: 136471fb-5e8f-4fa2-9dc5-86d33e5d8745
ORCID for Zoë Thomas: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2323-4366

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 04 Apr 2023 17:01
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:10

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Contributors

Author: Alan Cooper
Author: Chris S.M. Turney
Author: Jonathan Palmer
Author: Alan Hogg
Author: Matt McGlone
Author: Janet Wilmshurst
Author: Andrew M. Lorrey
Author: Timothy J. Heaton
Author: James M. Russell
Author: Ken McCracken
Author: Julien G. Anet
Author: Eugene Rozanov
Author: Marina Friedel
Author: Ivo Suter
Author: Thomas Peter
Author: Raimund Muscheler
Author: Florian Adolphi
Author: Anthony Dosseto
Author: J. Tyler Faith
Author: Pavla Fenwick
Author: Christopher J. Fogwill
Author: Konrad Hughen
Author: Mathew Lipson
Author: Jiabo Liu
Author: Norbert Nowaczyk
Author: Eleanor Rainsley
Author: Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Author: Paolo Sebastianelli
Author: Yassine Souilmi
Author: Janelle Stevenson
Author: Zoë Thomas ORCID iD
Author: Raymond Tobler
Author: Roland Zech
Corporate Author: et al.

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