Glacial onset predated Late Ordovician climate cooling

• Published in: Paleoceanography
• Main Authors: Pohl, Alexandre, Donnadieu, Yannick, Le Hir, Guillaume, Ladant, Jean‐baptiste, Dumas, Christophe, Alvarez‐solas, Jorge, Vandenbroucke, Thijs
• Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement (CEREGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Modélisation du climat (CLIM), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP (UMR_7154)), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de La Réunion (UR)-Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPG Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.STU.CL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Climatology; [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; [SDU.STU.PG]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Paleontology; Ice Sheet; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02902792; https://hal.science/hal-02902792/document; https://hal.science/hal-02902792/file/2016PA002928.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1002/2016PA002928

International audience The Ordovician glaciation represents the acme of one of only three major icehouse periods in Earth's Phanerozoic history and is notorious for setting the scene for one of the "big five" mass extinction events. Nevertheless, the mechanisms that drove ice sheet growth remain poorly understood and the final extent of the ice sheet crudely constrained. Here using an Earth system model with an innovative coupling method between ocean, atmosphere, and land ice accounting for climate and ice sheet feedback processes, we report simulations portraying for the first time the detailed evolution of the Ordovician ice sheet. We show that the emergence of the ice sheet happened in two discrete phases. In a counterintuitive sequence of events, the continental ice sheet appeared suddenly in a warm climate. Only during the second act, and set against a background of decreasing atmospheric CO 2 , followed steeply dropping temperatures and extending sea ice. The comparison with abundant sedimentological, geochemical, and micropaleontological data suggests that glacial onset may have occurred as early as the Middle Ordovician Darriwilian, in agreement with recent studies reporting third-order glacioeustatic cycles during the same period. The second step in ice sheet growth, typified by a sudden drop in tropical sea surface temperatures by ∼8 ∘ C and the further extension of a single, continental-scale ice sheet over Gondwana, marked the onset of the Hirnantian glacial maximum. By suggesting the presence of an ice sheet over Gondwana throughout most of the Middle and Late Ordovician, our models embrace the emerging paradigm of an "early Paleozoic Ice Age."