Diatom isotope data and salinity reconstructions from ODP Site 887, subarctic northeast Pacific Ocean ...

• Main Author: Swann, George E A
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2020
• Subjects: Diatom; isotope; Pacific; Salinity; Ocean Drilling Program ODP; Ice Sheet; North Atlantic; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.925157; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.925157

Understanding the response of the climate to abrupt changes in the Earth system represents a key objective in paleoclimatology. Heinrich events in the last glacial, during which significant amounts of glacial discharge entered the North Atlantic Ocean, triggered the development of colder conditions across much of the globe. Despite widespread documentation of these events, including their occurrence and global significance, the impact of Heinrich events on the North American Cordilleran Ice Sheet and subarctic North Pacific Ocean remains relatively unconstrained. Here, records of diatom oxygen isotopes are used to show that significant amounts of glacial discharge from the Cordilleran Ice Sheet were released into the open waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean throughout the last glacial. Based on the available age model, many of these episodes and calculated changes in sea surface salinity coincide with Heinrich events. If accurate, these findings would confirm that ocean-atmospheric teleconnections linked ...