Abstract. High-resolution measurements of chemical impurities and methane concentrations in Greenland ice core samples from the early glacial period allow the extension of annual-layer counted chronologies and the improvement of gas age-ice age difference ( age) essential to the synchronization of ice core records. We report high-resolution measurements of a 50 m section of the NorthGRIP ice core and corresponding annual layer thicknesses in order to constrain the duration of the Greenland Stadial 22 (GS-22) between Greenland Interstadials (GIs) 21 and 22, for which inconsistent durations and ages have been reported from Greenland and Antarctic ice core records as well as European speleothems. Depending on the chronology used, GS-22 occurred between approximately 89 (end of GI-22) and 83 kyr b2k (onset of GI-21). From annual layer counting, we find that GS-22 lasted between 2696 and 3092 years and was followed by a GI-21 pre-cursor event lasting between 331 and 369 yr. Our layer-based counting agrees with the duration of stadial 22 as determined from the NALPS speleothem record (3250 ± 526 yr) but not with that of the GICC05modelext chronology (2620 yr) or an alternative chronology based on gas-marker synchronization to EPICA Dronning Maud Land ice core. These results show that GICC05modelext overestimates accumulation and/or underestimates thinning in this early part of the last glacial period. We also revise the possible ranges of NorthGRIP depth (5.49 to 5.85 m) and age (498 to 601 yr) at the warming onset of GI-21 as well as the age range at the onset of the GI-21 precursor warming (523 to 654 yr), observing that temperature (represented by the δ 15 N proxy) increases before CH 4 concentration by no more than a few decades.

Abstract. In 2011 four ice cores were extracted from the summit of Alto dell'Ortles (3859 m), the highest glacier of South Tyrol in the Italian Alps. This drilling site is located only 37 km southwest from where the Tyrolean Iceman, ∼ 5.3 kyrs old, was discovered emerging from the ablating ice field of Tisenjoch (3210 m, near the Italian-Austrian border) in 1991. The excellent preservation of this mummy suggested that the Tyrolean Iceman was continuously embedded in prehistoric ice and that additional ancient ice was likely preserved elsewhere in South Tyrol. Dating of the ice cores from Alto dell'Ortles based on 210 Pb, tritium, beta activity and 14 C determinations, combined with an empirical model (COPRA), provides evidence for a chronologically ordered ice stratigraphy from the modern glacier surface down to the bottom ice layers with an age of ∼ 7 kyrs, which confirms the hypothesis. Our results indicate that the drilling site has continuously been glaciated on frozen bedrock since ∼ 7 kyrs BP. Absence of older ice on the highest glacier of South Tyrol is consistent with the removal of basal ice from bedrock during the Northern Hemisphere Climatic Optimum (6-9 kyrs BP), the warmest interval in the European Alps during the Holocene. Borehole inclinometric measurements of the current glacier flow combined with surface ground penetration radar (GPR) measurements indicate that, due to the sustained atmospheric warming since the 1980s, an acceleration of the glacier Alto dell'Ortles flow has just recently begun. Given the stratigraphic-chronological continuity of the Mt. Ortles cores over millennia, it can be argued that this behaviour has been unprecedented at this location since the Northern Hemisphere Climatic Optimum.

The NorthGRIP ice core chronology <i>GICC05modelext</i> is composed of the annual-layer counted <i>GICC05</i> chronology to 60 kyr before 2000 AD (b2k), and an ice flow model dating the deepest part of the ice core to 123 kyr b2k. Determination of annual strata in ice beyond 60 kyr b2k has been challenged by the thinning of annual layers to <1 cm and the appearance of microfolds in some early glacial strata. We report high-resolution measurements of a 50 m section of the NorthGRIP ice core and corresponding annual layer thicknesses, constraining the duration of the Greenland Stadial (GS-22) between Greenland Interstadials (GIs) 21 and 22 which occurred between approximately 89 (end of GI-22) and 83 kyr b2k (onset of GI-21) depending on the chronology used. Multiple analytes (insoluble dust particles, electrolytic conductivity, ammonium and sodium) were determined in annual layers of ice often thinner than 1 cm. From annual layer counting, we find that GS-22 lasted 2894 ± 198 yr and was followed by a GI-21 pre-cursor event lasting 350 ± 19 yr. Our layer-based counting agrees with the duration of GS-22 determined from the NALPS speleothem record (3250 ± 526 yr) but not with that of the <i>GICC05modelext</i> chronology (2620 yr). These results show that <i>GICC05modelext</i> overestimates accumulation and/or underestimates thinning in this early part of the last glacial period. We also revise the NorthGRIP ice depth-gas depth (5.67 ± 0.18 m) and ice age-gas age (550 ± 52 yr) differences at the warming onset of GI-21, observing that &delta;¹⁵N increases before CH₄ concentration by no more than a few decades