Rapid coupling between solid earth and ice volume during the Quaternary

The solid earth plays a major role in controlling Earth’s surface climate. Volcanic degassing of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and silicate chemical weathering are known to regulate the evolution of climate on a geologic timescale (> 10(6) yr), but the relationship between the solid earth and the shorter (< 10(5) yr) fluctuations of Quaternary glacial–interglacial cycles is still under debate. Here we show that the seawater osmium isotope composition ((187)Os/(188)Os), a proxy for the solid earth’s response to climate change, has varied during the past 300,000 years in association with glacial–interglacial cycles. Our marine Os isotope mass-balance simulation reveals that the observed (187)Os/(188)Os fluctuation cannot be explained solely by global chemical weathering rate changes corresponding to glacial–interglacial climate changes, but the fluctuation can be reproduced by taking account of short-term inputs of (1) radiogenic Os derived from intense weathering of glacial till during deglacial periods and (2) unradiogenic Os derived from enhanced seafloor hydrothermalism triggered by sea-level falls associated with increases of ice sheet volume. Our results constitute the first evidence that ice sheet recession and expansion during the Quaternary systematically and repetitively caused short-term (< 10(5) yr) solid earth responses via chemical weathering of glacial till and seafloor magmatism. This finding implies that climatic changes on < 10(5) yr timescales can provoke rapid feedbacks from the solid earth, a causal relationship that is the reverse of the longer-term (> 10(6) yr) causality that has been conventionally considered.