Climate variations in Europe over the past 140 kyr deduced from rock magnetism

RAPID shifts in climate during the last glacial are now well documented, particularly from the oxygen isotope records of the two Greenland ice cores GRIP 1,2 and GISP2 3 . In the GRIP record 1,2 these climate events are also seen during the preceding (Eemian) interglacial which may be an analogue for the future climate, warmed by the greenhouse effect. But these shifts are not found in the Eemian section of the GISP2 core 3 , casting doubt on whether the rapid shifts in the GRIP oxygen isotope record really do represent a climate signal. Here we present magnetic susceptibility, pollen and organic carbon records from maar lake deposits in the Massif Central, France. These data provide an independent record of past climate and we find that they correlate well with the ice-core records during the last glacial. During the Eemian, two rapid cooling events seen in our record also correlate with those seen in the GRIP ice core, supporting the idea that rapid climate change did occur in the Eemian interglacial and demonstrating that it extended to continental Europe.