Talk by Louise Sime

(Bristish Antartic Survey)

Title: The Last Interglacial in Antarctic Ice Cores

Abstract: During the last interglacial (LIG; 130,000–115,000 years ago) global climate was warmer than today. In particular, measurements of water isotopes in Antarctic ice cores suggest temperatures were considerably higher than present day. This is spite of atmospheric CO2 levels which were only slightly higher than those in the preindustrial Holocene interglacial.

In this seminar I explore a variety of hypothesised causes of these ice core data, including the loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet, the reduction in Southern Ocean sea ice, and polar amplification of temperature changes in the Southern Hemisphere.