Mid-Pliocene Mg/Ca and clumped isotope bottom water temperatures from ODP Site 138-849 and IODP Site 303-U1308 ...

• Main Authors: Braaten, Anna Hauge, Jakob, Kim A, Ho, Sze Ling, Friedrich, Oliver, Galaasen, Eirik Vinje, De Schepper, Stijn, Wilson, Paul A, Meckler, Anna Nele
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2023
• Subjects: bottom water temperature; Clumped isotopes; Foraminifera; Mg/Ca; mid-Pliocene warm period; MIS M2; stable isotope geochemistry; Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.960832; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.960832

The mid-Pliocene (3.3-3.0 million years ago) is an important possible analogue to future, warmer-than-present climates. This interval is the most recent period in Earth's history of sustained global warmth, when atmospheric CO2 concentrations were comparable to the early 21th century, global ice volume was reduced and sea-levels were significantly higher than at present. Relatively few deep ocean temperature records exist from this time interval, but some available data suggest that large differences in temperatures existed between different deep ocean basins. This is in contrast to the modern ocean, which is relatively isothermal across the various basins at similar depth. In order to verify the possibility of a large temperature gradient between the deep Pacific and deep North Atlantic oceans, we generated new benthic foraminiferal carbonate clumped isotope (Δ47) and Mg/Ca bottom water temperatures from Pacific ODP Site 849 and North Atlantic IODP Site U1308. We find that the deep North Atlantic was ...