Ground temperature changes in eastern Canada: borehole temperature evidence compared with proxy data

Borehole temperature logs have been inverted to infer ground temperature histories (GTH) in eastern and central Canada. Regional ground temperature histories were obtained by simultaneous inversion of several temperature profiles from the same areas. Simultaneous inversion of 21 temperature logs sampled across all of eastern and central Canada yielded an average solution for this region. All but three of the studied sites show signs of warming in the last 150 years. This period of warming, which started after 1800 AD, was found throughout this part of Canada. The warming followed a cooler period corresponding to the little Ice Age. The inferred ground temperature histories exhibit long-term trends similar to those obtained from treering growth indices in nearby regions and stable isotope data in the southern hemisphere. The modern warming appears correlated with the atmospheric concentration of CO₂ as measured in ice cores.