The Oligocene–Miocene Boundary – Antarctic Climate Response to Orbital Forcing

• Main Authors: F. Florindo, M. Siegert (editors, G. S. Wilson, S. F. Pekar, T. Naish, S. Passchier, R. Deconto
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.211.1827; http://www.geo.umass.edu/climate/papers2/Wilson_et_al.2008.pdf

Recent high-resolution Oligocene–Miocene oxygen isotopic records revealed a AU:2 relatively transient, ca. 2 myr period, 1 m amplitude cyclicity in isotopic values (Oi and Mi events, respectively). Intriguingly, it has been suggested that these isotopic excursions in oceanic d 18 O were linked to ephemeral growth and decay in Antarctic ice sheets. A great deal of effort in the palaeoceanography community has been focused on developing techniques and gathering further records to determine if the Antarctic ice has behaved in such a transient manner in the past and indeed what factors might have led to the rapid growth and decay of ice sheets. Deciphering between temperature and ice-volume influences in the deep-sea isotopic record has proven somewhat difficult. Approaches have included the sampling of sediment from beneath different water masses, development of an independent palaeothermometer using magnesium/calcium ratios and improving the resolution and accuracy of coastal sea-level records. Despite these advances it Corresponding author.