Journal article
A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago
- 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.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, 1.7MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1126/science.abb8677
Authors
- Publisher:
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Journal:
- Science More from this journal
- Volume:
- 371
- Issue:
- 6531
- Pages:
- 811-818
- Publication date:
- 2021-02-19
- Acceptance date:
- 2020-12-14
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1095-9203
- ISSN:
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0036-8075
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1162512
- Local pid:
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pubs:1162512
- Deposit date:
-
2021-03-11
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Cooper et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works https://www.sciencemag.org/about/science-licenses-journal-article-reuse This is an article distributed under the terms of the Science Journals Default License.
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available from American Association for the Advancement of Science at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abb8677
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