Deepening of Southern Ocean Gateway Leads to Abrupt Onset of a Deep-Reaching Meridional Overturning Circulation
Around 50–34 million years ago, the Southern Hemisphere witnessed a major reorganization of continents. This led to the opening and deepening of two Southern Ocean gateways (OGs)—the Tasmanian Gateway between Australia and Antarctica, and Drake Passage between Cape Horn and the Antarctica Peninsula....
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3131320 https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104382 |
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ftnorce:oai:norceresearch.brage.unit.no:11250/3131320 2024-06-23T07:47:34+00:00 Deepening of Southern Ocean Gateway Leads to Abrupt Onset of a Deep-Reaching Meridional Overturning Circulation Xing, Qianjiang Klocker, Andreas Munday, David Whittaker, Joanne 2023 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3131320 https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104382 eng eng Geophysical Research Letters. 2023, 50 (19), . urn:issn:0094-8276 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3131320 https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104382 cristin:2189668 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.no © 2023, the Authors Geophysical Research Letters 50 19 0 Journal article Peer reviewed 2023 ftnorce https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104382 2024-05-27T03:05:33Z Around 50–34 million years ago, the Southern Hemisphere witnessed a major reorganization of continents. This led to the opening and deepening of two Southern Ocean gateways (OGs)—the Tasmanian Gateway between Australia and Antarctica, and Drake Passage between Cape Horn and the Antarctica Peninsula. During this period Earth's climate went through a major climate transition, from a hot world (“Greenhouse”) to a cold world (“Icehouse”). One hypothesis to explain this dramatic climate transition is that the opening of these ocean gateways led to a major transition in the ocean's overturning circulation (i.e., its vertical circulation) with important consequences for the ocean's capability to store heat and carbon. In this study we use an ocean model to understand how the opening of an OG affects the ocean's overturning circulation. We show that it is small-scale processes, and their ability to transport heat southward and downward, which lead to a sudden increase of the ocean's overturning circulation as soon as the OG opens. Further deepening of the ocean gateways then leads to a decrease in the overturning circulation. This study therefore highlights the crucial role of small-scale processes in changing Earth's climate. publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Drake Passage Southern Ocean NORCE vitenarkiv (Norwegian Research Centre) Cape Horn ENVELOPE(-135.021,-135.021,61.583,61.583) Drake Passage Southern Ocean Geophysical Research Letters 50 19 |
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Open Polar |
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NORCE vitenarkiv (Norwegian Research Centre) |
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ftnorce |
language |
English |
description |
Around 50–34 million years ago, the Southern Hemisphere witnessed a major reorganization of continents. This led to the opening and deepening of two Southern Ocean gateways (OGs)—the Tasmanian Gateway between Australia and Antarctica, and Drake Passage between Cape Horn and the Antarctica Peninsula. During this period Earth's climate went through a major climate transition, from a hot world (“Greenhouse”) to a cold world (“Icehouse”). One hypothesis to explain this dramatic climate transition is that the opening of these ocean gateways led to a major transition in the ocean's overturning circulation (i.e., its vertical circulation) with important consequences for the ocean's capability to store heat and carbon. In this study we use an ocean model to understand how the opening of an OG affects the ocean's overturning circulation. We show that it is small-scale processes, and their ability to transport heat southward and downward, which lead to a sudden increase of the ocean's overturning circulation as soon as the OG opens. Further deepening of the ocean gateways then leads to a decrease in the overturning circulation. This study therefore highlights the crucial role of small-scale processes in changing Earth's climate. publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Xing, Qianjiang Klocker, Andreas Munday, David Whittaker, Joanne |
spellingShingle |
Xing, Qianjiang Klocker, Andreas Munday, David Whittaker, Joanne Deepening of Southern Ocean Gateway Leads to Abrupt Onset of a Deep-Reaching Meridional Overturning Circulation |
author_facet |
Xing, Qianjiang Klocker, Andreas Munday, David Whittaker, Joanne |
author_sort |
Xing, Qianjiang |
title |
Deepening of Southern Ocean Gateway Leads to Abrupt Onset of a Deep-Reaching Meridional Overturning Circulation |
title_short |
Deepening of Southern Ocean Gateway Leads to Abrupt Onset of a Deep-Reaching Meridional Overturning Circulation |
title_full |
Deepening of Southern Ocean Gateway Leads to Abrupt Onset of a Deep-Reaching Meridional Overturning Circulation |
title_fullStr |
Deepening of Southern Ocean Gateway Leads to Abrupt Onset of a Deep-Reaching Meridional Overturning Circulation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Deepening of Southern Ocean Gateway Leads to Abrupt Onset of a Deep-Reaching Meridional Overturning Circulation |
title_sort |
deepening of southern ocean gateway leads to abrupt onset of a deep-reaching meridional overturning circulation |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3131320 https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104382 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-135.021,-135.021,61.583,61.583) |
geographic |
Cape Horn Drake Passage Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Cape Horn Drake Passage Southern Ocean |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Drake Passage Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Drake Passage Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Geophysical Research Letters 50 19 0 |
op_relation |
Geophysical Research Letters. 2023, 50 (19), . urn:issn:0094-8276 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3131320 https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104382 cristin:2189668 |
op_rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.no © 2023, the Authors |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104382 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
50 |
container_issue |
19 |
_version_ |
1802651696314187776 |