Millennial climatic instability during penultimate glacial period recorded in a south-western France speleothem

International audienceThis study focuses on an earlier MIS (marine isotopic stage) 6 flowstone deposit (Vil-car-1 core, Villars Cave, SW-France) that recorded millennial scale climatic events. This speleothem provides a high resolution record of the penultimate glacial period on mid-latitude land. The flowstone high growth rate and the episodes with depleted calcite delta C-13(c) values suggest that marine isotopic substage 6e environmental conditions were relatively warm and humid. Its delta C-13(c) profile clearly displays five main climatic oscillations from 177 to 165 ka, correlated with stadial-interstadial events. Similarly to the MIS3 period, the transitions in between those interstadials and stadials are characterised by abrupt changes and intra-interstadial variability is observed. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved