Vostok ice core - A continuous isotope temperature record over the last climatic cycle (160,000 years)

A continuous deuterium record along the Vostok ice core has been obtained and is interpreted in terms of local surface temperature changes over the past 160 kyr. The record is dominated by the large glacial-interglacial signal occurring at about 100 kyr with a total temperature amplitude of about 11 C. It is confirmed that the warmest part of the Last Interglacial Period was about 2 C warmer than the Holocene. This climatic record is the awaited terrestrial complement of the deep-sea records supporting the existence of a relation between the Pleistocene climate and orbital forcing.