Modelling global-scale climate impacts of the late Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis
Late Miocene tectonic changes in Mediterranean–Atlantic connectivity and climatic changes caused Mediterranean salinity to fluctuate dramatically, including a ten-fold increase and near-freshening. Recent proxy- and model-based evidence suggests that at times during this Messinian Salinity Crisis (M...
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:a665f03c408b45718c3d68318b4d1dd4 2023-05-15T16:30:01+02:00 Modelling global-scale climate impacts of the late Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis R. F. Ivanovic P. J. Valdes R. Flecker M. Gutjahr 2014-03-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-607-2014 http://www.clim-past.net/10/607/2014/cp-10-607-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/a665f03c408b45718c3d68318b4d1dd4 en eng Copernicus Publications 1814-9324 1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-10-607-2014 http://www.clim-past.net/10/607/2014/cp-10-607-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/a665f03c408b45718c3d68318b4d1dd4 undefined Climate of the Past, Vol 10, Iss 2, Pp 607-622 (2014) geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2014 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-607-2014 2023-01-22T18:58:19Z Late Miocene tectonic changes in Mediterranean–Atlantic connectivity and climatic changes caused Mediterranean salinity to fluctuate dramatically, including a ten-fold increase and near-freshening. Recent proxy- and model-based evidence suggests that at times during this Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC, 5.96–5.33 Ma), highly saline and highly fresh Mediterranean water flowed into the North Atlantic Ocean, whilst at others, no Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) reached the Atlantic. By running extreme, sensitivity-type experiments with a fully coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model, we investigate the potential of these various MSC MOW scenarios to impact global-scale climate. The simulations suggest that although the effect remains relatively small, MOW had a greater influence on North Atlantic Ocean circulation and climate than it does today. We also find that depending on the presence, strength and salinity of MOW, the MSC could have been capable of cooling mid–high northern latitudes by a few degrees, with the greatest cooling taking place in the Labrador, Greenland–Iceland–Norwegian and Barents seas. With hypersaline MOW, a component of North Atlantic Deep Water formation shifts to the Mediterranean, strengthening the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) south of 35° N by 1.5–6 Sv. With hyposaline MOW, AMOC completely shuts down, inducing a bipolar climate anomaly with strong cooling in the north (mainly −1 to −3 °C, but up to −8 °C) and weaker warming in the south (up to +0.5 to +2.7 °C). These simulations identify key target regions and climate variables for future proxy reconstructions to provide the best and most robust test cases for (a) assessing Messinian model performance, (b) evaluating Mediterranean–Atlantic connectivity during the MSC and (c) establishing whether or not the MSC could ever have affected global-scale climate. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Iceland North Atlantic Deep Water North Atlantic Unknown Greenland Climate of the Past 10 2 607 622 |
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geo envir R. F. Ivanovic P. J. Valdes R. Flecker M. Gutjahr Modelling global-scale climate impacts of the late Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis |
topic_facet |
geo envir |
description |
Late Miocene tectonic changes in Mediterranean–Atlantic connectivity and climatic changes caused Mediterranean salinity to fluctuate dramatically, including a ten-fold increase and near-freshening. Recent proxy- and model-based evidence suggests that at times during this Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC, 5.96–5.33 Ma), highly saline and highly fresh Mediterranean water flowed into the North Atlantic Ocean, whilst at others, no Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) reached the Atlantic. By running extreme, sensitivity-type experiments with a fully coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model, we investigate the potential of these various MSC MOW scenarios to impact global-scale climate. The simulations suggest that although the effect remains relatively small, MOW had a greater influence on North Atlantic Ocean circulation and climate than it does today. We also find that depending on the presence, strength and salinity of MOW, the MSC could have been capable of cooling mid–high northern latitudes by a few degrees, with the greatest cooling taking place in the Labrador, Greenland–Iceland–Norwegian and Barents seas. With hypersaline MOW, a component of North Atlantic Deep Water formation shifts to the Mediterranean, strengthening the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) south of 35° N by 1.5–6 Sv. With hyposaline MOW, AMOC completely shuts down, inducing a bipolar climate anomaly with strong cooling in the north (mainly −1 to −3 °C, but up to −8 °C) and weaker warming in the south (up to +0.5 to +2.7 °C). These simulations identify key target regions and climate variables for future proxy reconstructions to provide the best and most robust test cases for (a) assessing Messinian model performance, (b) evaluating Mediterranean–Atlantic connectivity during the MSC and (c) establishing whether or not the MSC could ever have affected global-scale climate. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
R. F. Ivanovic P. J. Valdes R. Flecker M. Gutjahr |
author_facet |
R. F. Ivanovic P. J. Valdes R. Flecker M. Gutjahr |
author_sort |
R. F. Ivanovic |
title |
Modelling global-scale climate impacts of the late Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis |
title_short |
Modelling global-scale climate impacts of the late Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis |
title_full |
Modelling global-scale climate impacts of the late Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis |
title_fullStr |
Modelling global-scale climate impacts of the late Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis |
title_full_unstemmed |
Modelling global-scale climate impacts of the late Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis |
title_sort |
modelling global-scale climate impacts of the late miocene messinian salinity crisis |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-607-2014 http://www.clim-past.net/10/607/2014/cp-10-607-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/a665f03c408b45718c3d68318b4d1dd4 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Iceland North Atlantic Deep Water North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Greenland Iceland North Atlantic Deep Water North Atlantic |
op_source |
Climate of the Past, Vol 10, Iss 2, Pp 607-622 (2014) |
op_relation |
1814-9324 1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-10-607-2014 http://www.clim-past.net/10/607/2014/cp-10-607-2014.pdf https://doaj.org/article/a665f03c408b45718c3d68318b4d1dd4 |
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undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-607-2014 |
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Climate of the Past |
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10 |
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2 |
container_start_page |
607 |
op_container_end_page |
622 |
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