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Cosmogenic nuclides contained in the annual layers of natural materials record temporal variations in the galactic cosmic ray flux. 14C in tree rings and 10Be in ice cores from polar regions are often used to retrieve accurate histories of galactic cosmic rays. However, the variation in 14C produced in the atmosphere is strongly attenuated in the carbon cycle and the amplitude of decadal scale variations in tree rings is approximately 0.2‰. In the case of 10Be in ice cores, the variation remains at a relatively large amplitude; however, the records are accompanied by dating uncertainties. Another material that contains 10Be is sediment in continental areas. Terrestrial carbonate deposits sometimes form clear annual layers; however, detailed analyses on such deposits have not yet been widely conducted. Therefore, we evaluate the possibility of retrieving information concerning the galactic cosmic ray flux from the terrestrial carbonate deposits. In this paper, we report our preliminary results obtained from the measurements of 10Be in travertine and tufa samples from South China. We find that the 10Be flux obtained from the travertines is comparable to the level produced by galactic cosmic rays and that travertines might have potential as a tool for investigating past cosmic-ray variations with annual resolution.

Annual rings record the intensity of cosmic rays (CRs) that had entered into the Earth’s atmosphere. Several rapid 14C increases in the past, such as the 775 CE and 994CE 14C spikes, have been reported to originate from extreme solar proton events (SPEs). Another rapid 14C increase, also known as the ca. 660 BCE event in German oak tree rings as well as increases of 10Be and 36Cl in ice cores, was presumed similar to the 775 CE event; however, as the 14C increase of approximately 10‰ in 660 BCE had taken a rather longer rise time of 3–4 years as compared to that of the 775 CE event, the occurrence could not be simply associated to an extreme SPE. In this study, to elucidate the rapid increase in 14C concentrations in tree rings around 660 BCE, we have precisely measured the 14C concentrations of earlywoods and latewoods inside the annual rings of Japanese cedar for the period 669–633 BCE. Based on the feature of 14C production rate calculated from the fine measured profile of the 14C concentrations, we found that the 14C rapid increase occurred within 665–663.5 BCE, and that duration of 14C production describing the event is distributed from one month to 41 months. The possibility of occurrence of consecutive SPEs over up to three years is offered.

To explore the possibility of using ground ice archives for studies of the cosmogenic radionuclide 10Be, we analyzed the beryllium isotopes in ice wedges exposed in the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) Permafrost Tunnel and the Barrow Permafrost Tunnel in Alaska. We determined the concentrations of 10Be and 9Be in samples pretreated following two procedures: acidification before (procedure A) and after (procedure B) removal of particles. The 10Be and 9Be concentrations spanned wide ranges. Concentrations in procedure A samples were higher than those in procedure B samples. The 10Be/9Be ratios fell within a narrow range, and values from CRREL (about 8.5 × 10−9) and Barrow (about 7 × 10−9) were of the same order of magnitude. Further studies are needed to validate our findings and assess the feasibility of using the 10Be/9Be ratio of syngenetic ice wedges for reconstruction of 10Be variations due to cosmogenic and environmental changes, and radiometric dating of ice-wedge sequences that contain very old (beyond 1 Ma) ice.

For atmospheric gases and aerosols, snow and ice provide a useful archive of paleoenvironmental history. In the northern hemisphere, this archive has been largely limited to Greenland ice, but promising pioneering work has been done recently using chronology of an ice wedge in Barrow, northern Alaska. Here, we investigate past aerosols at the same ice-wedge sampling site, reconstructing the sea-ice fluctuations in the adjacent Beaufort Sea during the Bolling/Allerod (BA) and Younger Dryas (YD) periods. We confirm the integrity of methanesulfonate ion (MS−) concentrations in the BIWS as marine proxies, and then find that the ice wedge has a high MS− concentration through the beginning (coldest) YD periods. The high MS− concentration indicates that even during the coldest YD periods (12,900–12,700 yrBP), the near-shore region in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea near Barrow may not have been completely filled by permanent sea ice.

The Sun exhibits centennial-scale activity variations and sometimes encounters grand solar minimum when solar activity becomes extremely weak and sunspots disappear for several decades. Such an extreme weakening of solar activity could cause severe climate, causing massive reductions in crop yields in some regions. During the past decade, the Sun’s activity has tended to decline, raising concerns that the Sun might be heading for the next grand minimum. However, we still have an underdeveloped understanding of solar dynamo mechanisms and hence precise prediction of near-future solar activity is not attained. Here we show that the 11-year solar cycles were significantly lengthened before the onset of the Maunder Minimum (1645–1715 CE) based on unprecedentedly high-precision data of carbon-14 content in tree rings. It implies that flow speed in the convection zone is an essential parameter to determine long-term solar activity variations. We find that a 16 year-long cycle had occurred three solar cycles before the onset of prolonged sunspot disappearance, suggesting a longer-than-expected preparatory period for the grand minimum. As the Sun has shown a tendency of cycle lengthening since Solar Cycle 23 (1996–2008 CE), the behavior of Solar Cycle 25 can be critically important to the later solar activity.

129I in natural archives, such as ice cores, can be used as a proxy for human nuclear activities, age marker, and environmental tracer. Currently, there is only one published record of 129I in ice core (i.e., from Fiescherhorn Glacier, Swiss Alps) and its limited time resolution (1–2 years) prevents the full use of 129I for the mentioned applications. Here we show 129I concentrations in an ice core from SE-Dome, Greenland, covering years 1956–1976 at a time resolution of ∼6 months, the most detailed record to date. Results revealed 129I bomb peaks in years 1959, 1962, and 1963, associated to tests performed by the former Soviet Union, one year prior, in its Novaya Zemlya test site. All 129I bomb peaks were observed in winter (1958.9, 1962.1, and 1963.0), while tritium bomb peaks, another prominent radionuclide associated with nuclear bomb testing, were observed in spring or summer (1959.3, and 1963.6; Iizuka et al., 2017). These results indicate that 129I bomb peaks can be used as annual and seasonal age markers for these years. Furthermore, we found that 129I recorded nuclear fuel reprocessing signals and that these can be potentially used to correct timing of estimated 129I releases during years 1964–1976. Comparisons with other published records of 129I in natural archives showed that 129I can be used as common age marker and tracer for different types of records. Most notably, the 1963 129I bomb peak can be used as common age marker for ice and coral cores, providing the means to reconcile age models and associated trends from the polar and tropical regions, respectively.

We introduce the method of multiple cross-wavelet algorithm, hereafter also as Einstein’s cross functions, for the time-frequency study of solar activity records or any astronomical and geophysical time series in general. The main purpose of this algorithm is to allow the simultaneous examination of the time-frequency information contents in n > 2 time series available. Previous cross-wavelet algorithm only permit the study of two time series at a time and was not extended to the generalized n > 2 problems until now. Furthermore, our new work lifted the restriction from the original formulation that are valid only for stationary processes. We applied our new algorithm to several of the solar activity proxies available in order to demonstrate the broad and powerful utility of this technique. We have used solar activity proxy records that are obtained under different geophysical archives and time periods which are, in turn, suitable for studying both the statistical and physical properties for solar variations valid on timescales of multi-century, millennium to several millennia. We focus on documenting the methodology in this paper rather than any elaborate interpretation of the results.

The research investigated three iron carbonate (siderite) sedimentary concretions from Nagykovacsi, Uri and Delegyhaza, Hungary. To identify possible source rocks and effects of the glaze-like exposed surface of the concretions, we carried on comparative petrological, mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic studies. The samples were microbially mediated siderite concretions with embedded metamorphous and igneous mineral clasts, and had specific rim belts characterized by semi-concentric outer Fe-oxide layers, fluffy pyrite-rich outer belts and siderite inner parts. We investigated the cross section of the Fe-carbonate concretions by independent methodologies in order to identify their rim effects. Their surficial oxide layers showed evidence of degassing of the exposed surface caused most probably by elevated temperatures. The inner rim pyrite belt in the concretions excluded the possibility of a prolonged wet surface environment. Microtextural and mineralogical features did not support desert varnish formation. 10Be nuclide values of the Nagykovacsi and Uri concretions were far above the level of terrestrial in-situ cosmogenic nuclides, but they were consistent with the lowest levels for meteorites. Though the data were not conclusive to confirm any kind of known origin, they are contradictary, and open possibilities for a scenario of terrestrial meteorite origin.

The Western Pacific Warm Pool plays a significant role in large-scale atmospheric circulation and global hydrology. We conducted an environmental magnetic study of two late Pleistocene sediment cores from the western equatorial Pacific Ocean offshore of New Guinea in order to better constrain climatic and oceanographic variability, particularly spatiotemporal ocean productivity variations. Magnetic property measurements and transmission electron microscopy reveal that the magnetic mineral assemblages in the studied sediments are a mixture of biogenic and terrigenous magnetite. Variations in the acid soluble sediment component, interpreted as carbonate content, and the proportion of biogenic to terrigenous magnetite estimated from the ratio of anhysteretic to saturation remanent magnetizations are in-phase with northern hemisphere summer insolation variations. We interpret that ocean productivity increased during insolation maxima, which induced higher populations of magnetotactic bacteria through a larger nutrient supply to the seafloor. This interpretation assumes that magnetotactic bacterial populations are greatest in sediments just below the seafloor. Precessional frequencies in magnetic mineral concentration variations are suppressed after correction for carbonate dilution, whereas cyclic changes with a ∼100 kyr periodicity remain in carbonate-free magnetic concentration variations. Glacial/interglacial changes in bottom water currents may have influenced transportation and deposition of magnetic minerals. We demonstrate the usefulness of magnetic proxies for paleoceanographic studies, particularly of biogenic magnetite proxies for estimating paleoproductivity variations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Cosmogenic 10Be is a proxy of cosmic-ray flux, and its natural records provide vital information about the past intensity variability of the geomagnetic field and solar activity. 10Be records also serve as powerful tools for global synchronization among a variety of paleoarchives and for elucidating sedimentary processes on natural remanent magnetization acquisition. However, high-resolution (multi-decadal to multi-centennial) records of 10Be are scarce, especially those older than several tens of thousands of years. Here we present multiple high-resolution 10Be records of the Iceland Basin geomagnetic excursion interval (ca. 170–200 kyr ago) obtained from sediment cores (authigenic 10Be/9Be ratio) and an ice core (atmospheric 10Be flux). Comparing sedimentary 10Be records with relative paleointensity from the same cores, we found differences in the magnetic lock-in depth, even between adjacent cores. The 10Be-proxy records from the sediment and ice cores exhibit common characteristics: an asymmetric large-scale variation, a ∼7-kyr quasi-plateau around the maximum with a characteristic mid-term depression, and multi-millennial fluctuations in cosmic-ray flux during this interval. Minimal-synchronized and stacked 10Be records show that maximum cosmic-ray flux occurred 188.5–190.0 kyr ago and was double the present flux. A wavelet analysis of the stacked curve reveals dominant 4-kyr and secondary 8-kyr periodicities, both of which can be interpreted as intrinsic geomagnetic cycles. The wavelet spectrum of the high-resolution ice-core record shows a periodicity of 1.7 kyr and somewhat intermingled multi-centennial cycles around the maxima of 10Be, which likely represent solar cycles in this period. High-resolution 10Be records from multiple paleoarchives provide both a robust proxy record of cosmic-ray flux and a valuable tool for detailed global synchronization based on cosmic-ray variations.

Reproducible climate reconstructions of the Common Era (1 CE to present) are key to placing industrial-era warming into the context of natural climatic variability. Here we present a community-sourced database of temperature-sensitive proxy records from the PAGES2k initiative. The database gathers 692 records from 648 locations, including all continental regions and major ocean basins. The records are from trees, ice, sediment, corals, speleothems, documentary evidence, and other archives. They range in length from 50 to 2000 years, with a median of 547 years, while temporal resolution ranges from biweekly to centennial. Nearly half of the proxy time series are significantly correlated with HadCRUT4.2 surface temperature over the period 1850-2014. Global temperature composites show a remarkable degree of coherence between high- and low-resolution archives, with broadly similar patterns across archive types, terrestrial versus marine locations, and screening criteria. The database is suited to investigations of global and regional temperature variability over the Common Era, and is shared in the Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) format, including serializations in Matlab, R and Python., PAGES, a core project of Future Earth, is supported by the U.S. and Swiss National Science Foundations. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Some of this work was conducted as part of the North America 2k Working Group supported by the John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, funded by the U.S. Geological Survey. B. Bauer, W. Gross, and E. Gille (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information) are gratefully acknowledged for helping assemble the data citations and creating the NCEI versions of the PAGES 2k data records. We thank all the investigators whose commitment to data sharing enables the open science ethos embodied by this project.

Climatic variabilities on millennial and longer time scales with a bipolar seesaw pattern have been documented in paleoclimatic records, but their frequencies, relationships with mean climatic state, and mechanisms remain unclear. Understanding the processes and sensitivities that underlie these changes will underpin better understanding of the climate system and projections of its future change. We investigate the long-term characteristics of climatic variability using a new ice-core record from Dome Fuji, East Antarctica, combined with an existing long record from the Dome C ice core. Antarctic warming events over the past 720,000 years are most frequent when the Antarctic temperature is slightly below average on orbital time scales, equivalent to an intermediate climate during glacial periods, whereas interglacial and fully glaciated climates are unfavourable for a millennial-scale bipolar seesaw. Numerical experiments using a fully coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model with freshwater hosing in the northern North Atlantic showed that climate becomes most unstable in intermediate glacial conditions associated with large changes in sea ice and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Model sensitivity experiments suggest that the prerequisite for the most frequent climate instability with bipolar seesaw pattern during the late Pleistocene era is associated with reduced atmospheric CO2 concentration via global cooling and sea ice formation in the North Atlantic, in addition to extended Northern Hemisphere ice sheets., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Soil samples from an 85-cm-long continuous section (PY608ES) were collected from an island in Lake Pumoyum Co (southeastern Tibetan Plateau, ∼5020 m asl) in August 2006. To estimate past environmental conditions of Lake Pumoyum Co during the Holocene, we analyzed radiocarbon ages, stable carbon isotope compositions, and total organic carbon/total nitrogen (TOC/TN) atomic ratios of the soil samples. The 14C measurements were performed with the Tandetron accelerator mass spectrometry system at the Center for Chronological Research, Nagoya University. The 14C concentration in the surface layer (101 pMC; 5–10 cm soil depth) was nearly modern. A 14C chronology of the sequence indicated that continuous soil development began on the island in Lake Pumoyum Co at ∼5800 cal BP (at 63 cm soil depth, the top of a gravel layer). These results may reflect a decrease in the lake level in the middle Holocene. The age of the obvious lithologic boundary (∼5800 cal BP) corresponds to the end of Holocene climate optimum.

We have determined the radiocarbon ages for 40-yr-interval tree rings in 2 fossil trees of the Towada Hachinohe buried forest, northeastern Honshu Island, Japan. The 14C ages range from 13.0 to 13.3 kyr BP (about 15.5 cal kyr BP). The weighted average of the 14C age of the outermost 5 rings is 13,133 ± 33 BP, which can be calibrated to 15,363–15,679 cal BP by using the IntCal04 standard curve (Reimer et al. 2004). The estimated δ14C values range between 265 and 300% and show approximately sinusoidal fluctuation of an indicated ∼200-yr cycle, perhaps reflecting contemporary solar activity change. Comparison between the tree 14C profile and the Cariaco Basin 14C record provides further information on the accurate date of the Towada Hachinohe buried forest and the eruption that produced it. 14C analysis of tree rings from the buried forest may contribute to the construction of a better 14C calibration curve and the elucidation of solar activity change during the last glacial period, as well as possible global and regional impacts of the huge eruption from Towada Volcano.