RECENT WARMING - ICE CORE EVIDENCE FROM TROPICAL ICE CORES WITH EMPHASIS ON CENTRAL-ASIA

Ice cores from the tropics and subtropics, in conjunction with those f rom the polar regions, provide a multifaceted record (dust, chemistry, stable isotopes, accumulation) of environmental changes which can be viewed both spatially and temporally. This paper emphasizes the oxygen isotopic record (deltaO-18) preserved in cores from the poles to the tropics and assesses the evidence for global warming in the last 50-10 0 years. From north to south these records include: Camp Century, Gree nland, Dunde and Guliya Ice Caps, China, Gregoriev Ice Cap, Kirghizia (formerly part of USSR), Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru and Siple Station and South Pole, Antarctica. The central Asian records along with that fro m Quelccaya provide strong evidence of recent and rapid warming in the tropics and subtropics, For the Dunde Ice Cap, where a long paleoclim atic record is available, the warming in this century appears to be un precedented in the Holocene. These tropical and subtropical records co ntrast sharply with those from polar cores which show little evidence of a recent warming. These data suggest that either the recent warming is a middle and lower latitude phenomenon or that these high altitude tropical and subtropical glaciers may be more sensitive to climate ch anges than the massive polar ice sheets. Regardless, the current rapid disintegration of many tropical and subtropical glaciers may result i n the permanent loss of numerous unique archives.