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MARGO
The acronym  MARGO is short for "Multiproxy Approach for the Reconstruction of the Glacial Ocean surface". It stands in for an international community effort of more than 50 scientists, who pursued the goal to reconstruct the sea-surface temperature at the Last Glacial Maximum  with the best methods that are available today: methods that are based on  species composition of micro fossils, and geochemical methods.

 The "official" MARGO Website is here: http://margo.pangaea.de/

Globale Karte der MARGO-Temperaturunterschiede für den Nordwinter/Südsommer

Example for a global map based on MARGO


This map shows the reconstructed LGM sea-surface temperature anomaly, computed as the difference between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, between 19,000 and 23,000 years before present) and present day, in units of °C for the Northern Hemisphere winter season (January-February-March). Negative anomalies (blue) denote regions that according to the MARGO reconstruction were colder than today, positive anomalies (yellow) point to regions that might have been warmer than today. The squares mark the geographic locations of the sediment cores that were investigated by the MARGO project using a variety of methods for temperature reconstruction. Dark grey areas in the ocean stand in for those regions to which no anomaly could be assigned because the nearest data points were too far (more than 2000 km) away. For illustration, contour lines on land (height contours with a 500 m interval) indicate the extent of the continental ice sheets. The grid lines are 30° of longitude and latitude apart. For the map an equal-area Hammer projection was chosen.



MARGO achievements

As compared to CLIMAP:

Better geographic coverage
Better temporal definition
Combines results of six proxies

MARGO results regarding the glacial ocean

Broad agreement with CLIMAP but…


There were a number of important projects that preceded MARGO at the national (German) as well as at the international level:
Most of the MARGO work was organized in international Workshops:
Gruppenfoto zweiter MARGO-Workshop in Castellet, Spanien

Second MARGO workshop in Castellet near Barcelona, Spain


Bibliography (preliminary)
*) Waelbroeck C, Paul A, Kucera M, Rosell-Melé A, Weinelt M, Schneider R, Mix AC, Abelmann A, Armand L, Bard E, Barker S, Barrows TT, Benway H, Cacho I, Chen MT, Cortijo E, Crosta X, de Vernal A, Dokken T, Duprat J, Elderfield H, Eynaud F, Gersonde G, Hayes A, Henry M, Hillaire-Marcel C, Huang CC, Jansen E, Juggins S, Kallel N, Kiefer T, Kienast M, Labeyrie L, Leclaire H, Londeix L, Mangin S, Matthiessen J, Marret F, Meland M, Morey AE, Mulitza S, Pflaumann U, Pisias NG, Radi T, Rochon A, Rohling EJ, Sbaffi L, Schäfer-Neth C, Solignac S, Spero H, Tachikawa K, Turon JL