Scientific Article Glaciation and Climate Variability
2026-02-23 (IPMA)
The scientific article “Onset of millennial climate variability with the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation” was recently published in the journal Science, with the collaboration of IPMA researcher Fátima Abrantes.
This paper significantly advances understanding of the onset of extensive glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere around 2.7 million years ago and its complex relationship with millennial-scale abrupt climate changes during the Quaternary. It highlights the contributions of a large international research team and features an unusually large sample size from sedimentary sequences collected during the IODP (International Ocean Discovery Program) Expedition 397, which focused on the “Iberian Margin Paleoclimate”.
All materials were recovered offshore Sines, specifically in the “Montanha dos Príncipes de Avis,” a region that records high-quality, millennial–scale climate variability over the last glacial cycles. This record can be accurately correlated with polar ice cores from both hemispheres. Additionally, the narrow continental shelf off Portugal facilitates rapid delivery of terrestrial material to the deep-sea environment, enabling the correlation of marine and ice-core records with European terrestrial sequences. Few locations worldwide can provide such detailed and clear linkages between marine, ice, and terrestrial records.
Fatima Abrantes served as one of the co-chiefs of the expedition, and Emilia Salgueiro was a member of the Science Party. The high-resolution XRF analysis of Site 1586 was conducted at IPMA, in the EMSO-GOLD laboratories of the Marine Geology Division, with voluntary support from the entire Paleoceanography and Paleoclimate group, which is also part of the Ocean and Climate Change Group at CCMAR (Center for Marine Sciences at the University of Algarve).
As this is a subscription-based article, it can only be accessed by visiting IPMA libraries or by paying for online access to the respective publisher.
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Copyright © Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere 2026
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