Mediterranean heat injection to the North Atlantic delayed the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations
Abstract The intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations at the end of the Pliocene epoch marks one of the most substantial climatic shifts of the Cenozoic. Despite global cooling, sea surface temperatures in the high latitude North Atlantic Ocean rose between 2.9–2.7 million years ago. Here...
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crspringernat:10.1038/s43247-021-00232-5 2023-05-15T16:41:02+02:00 Mediterranean heat injection to the North Atlantic delayed the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie Bahr, André Stepanek, Christian Catunda, Maria Carolina Amorim Karas, Cyrus Ziegler, Martin García-Gallardo, Ángela Grunert, Patrick 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00232-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00232-5.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00232-5 en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Communications Earth & Environment volume 2, issue 1 ISSN 2662-4435 General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Environmental Science journal-article 2021 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00232-5 2022-01-04T08:47:24Z Abstract The intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations at the end of the Pliocene epoch marks one of the most substantial climatic shifts of the Cenozoic. Despite global cooling, sea surface temperatures in the high latitude North Atlantic Ocean rose between 2.9–2.7 million years ago. Here we present sedimentary geochemical proxy data from the Gulf of Cadiz to reconstruct the variability of Mediterranean Outflow Water, an important heat source to the North Atlantic. We find evidence for enhanced production of Mediterranean Outflow from the mid-Pliocene to the late Pliocene which we infer could have driven a sub-surface heat channel into the high-latitude North Atlantic. We then use Earth System Models to constrain the impact of enhanced Mediterranean Outflow production on the northward heat transport in the North Atlantic. In accord with the proxy data, the numerical model results support the formation of a sub-surface channel that pumped heat from the subtropics into the high latitude North Atlantic. We further suggest that this mechanism could have delayed ice sheet growth at the end of the Pliocene. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice Sheet North Atlantic Springer Nature (via Crossref) Communications Earth & Environment 2 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
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English |
topic |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Environmental Science |
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General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Environmental Science Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie Bahr, André Stepanek, Christian Catunda, Maria Carolina Amorim Karas, Cyrus Ziegler, Martin García-Gallardo, Ángela Grunert, Patrick Mediterranean heat injection to the North Atlantic delayed the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations |
topic_facet |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Environmental Science |
description |
Abstract The intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations at the end of the Pliocene epoch marks one of the most substantial climatic shifts of the Cenozoic. Despite global cooling, sea surface temperatures in the high latitude North Atlantic Ocean rose between 2.9–2.7 million years ago. Here we present sedimentary geochemical proxy data from the Gulf of Cadiz to reconstruct the variability of Mediterranean Outflow Water, an important heat source to the North Atlantic. We find evidence for enhanced production of Mediterranean Outflow from the mid-Pliocene to the late Pliocene which we infer could have driven a sub-surface heat channel into the high-latitude North Atlantic. We then use Earth System Models to constrain the impact of enhanced Mediterranean Outflow production on the northward heat transport in the North Atlantic. In accord with the proxy data, the numerical model results support the formation of a sub-surface channel that pumped heat from the subtropics into the high latitude North Atlantic. We further suggest that this mechanism could have delayed ice sheet growth at the end of the Pliocene. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie Bahr, André Stepanek, Christian Catunda, Maria Carolina Amorim Karas, Cyrus Ziegler, Martin García-Gallardo, Ángela Grunert, Patrick |
author_facet |
Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie Bahr, André Stepanek, Christian Catunda, Maria Carolina Amorim Karas, Cyrus Ziegler, Martin García-Gallardo, Ángela Grunert, Patrick |
author_sort |
Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie |
title |
Mediterranean heat injection to the North Atlantic delayed the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations |
title_short |
Mediterranean heat injection to the North Atlantic delayed the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations |
title_full |
Mediterranean heat injection to the North Atlantic delayed the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations |
title_fullStr |
Mediterranean heat injection to the North Atlantic delayed the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mediterranean heat injection to the North Atlantic delayed the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations |
title_sort |
mediterranean heat injection to the north atlantic delayed the intensification of northern hemisphere glaciations |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00232-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00232-5.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00232-5 |
genre |
Ice Sheet North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet North Atlantic |
op_source |
Communications Earth & Environment volume 2, issue 1 ISSN 2662-4435 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00232-5 |
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Communications Earth & Environment |
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2 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766031463451459584 |