Timing and dynamics of the last deglaciation from European and North African δ13C stalagmite profiles-comparison with Chinese and South Hemisphere stalagmites

Abstract

The last deglaciation and its climatic events, such as the Bølling-Allerød (BA) and the Younger-Dryas (YD), have been clearly recorded in the δ13C profiles of three stalagmites from caves from Southern France to Northern Tunisia. The three δ13C records, dated by thermal ionization mass spectrometric uranium-thorium method (TIMS), show great synchroneity and similarity in shape with the Chinese cave δ18O records and with the marine tropical records, leading to the hypothesis of an in-phase (between 15.5 and 16 ka ∼±0.5 ka) postglacial warming in the Northern Hemisphere, up to at least 45°N. The BA transition appears more gradual in the speleothem records than in the Greenland records and the ..