Continental climate and ocean circulation change during the Pliocene-Pleistocene intensification of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation

• Main Author: Lang, David
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/385217/; https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/385217/1/David_Lang_Final_Thesis.pdf

The overall aim of this thesis, comprising three main chapters, is to investigate the characteristics and mechanisms of climate change across the Pliocene-Pleistocene intensification of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (iNHG) through the application of geochemical techniques to sediment cores with high rates of accumulation from the North Atlantic Ocean. Chapter 3 assesses the origin of sediment colour cycles at Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1313 (41°N, 3.4 km water depth) that show a remarkable correlation with global climate variability over the past 5 million years. The work presented shows that these cycles are controlled by variations in %CaCO3 driven by eolian dust deposition from North America not CaCO3 dissolution (the classic interpretation). Observed change at the secular timescale in a proxy record for dust accumulation from this site is consistent with wetter-than-modern conditions on North America during the warm early Pliocene. Chapter 4 presents a record of the Nd isotope composition of the deep North Atlantic (Site U1313) between 3.3 and 2.4 Ma, measured on fish debris. This represents the first orbitally resolved record of variations in water mass mixing in this region across iNHG derived using a quasi-conservative proxy. In contrast to existing benthic foraminiferal ?13C records, the Site U1313 dataset provides evidence for large glacial incursions of southern sourced water masses to the deep North Atlantic Ocean through iNHG. An important role for Atlantic meridional overturning circulation variability in amplifying glacial-interglacial cycles during this interval is inferred. Chapter 5 presents new, sub-orbitally resolved, palaeoceanographic records (Nd isotope, benthic ?18O, benthic ?13C and ice rafted debris) spanning the key Early Pleistocene glacial Marine Isotope Stage 100 (2.52 Ma) from sites situated in the deep (Site U1313, 3.4 km water depth) and intermediate (Ocean Drilling Program Site 981, 2.2 km water depth) North Atlantic. In contrast to Late Pleistocene records, Site ...