Severity and speed of Northern Hemisphere glaciation pulses: The limiting case?
A brief pulse of ice-sheet growth of enormous amplitude predicted by the theory of Milankovitch is confirmed by oxygen-isotopic and other evidence in Pacific and North Atlantic cores. This glaciation bisected “interglacial” isotopic stage 7, lasted no more than 23,000 yr from inception to end, and resulted in a very large ice-volume buildup and a full-glacial climatic response of the North Atlantic Ocean. This pulse, along with other episodes of rapid and large-scale ice growth, does not conform to the conventional “sawtooth” model of slow ice accumulation and rapid ice decay. Ice-growth rates on such pulses can approach the mean ice-decay rates on isotopic glacial terminations.