Late Miocene Onset of Tasman Leakage and Southern Hemisphere Supergyre Ushers in Near-Modern Circulation

This study provides a Miocene-to-recent history of Tasman Leakage (TL), driving surface-to-intermediate waters from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean. TL, in addition to Indonesian ThroughFlow (ITF), constitutes an important part of the Southern Hemisphere Supergyre. Here, we employ deep-sea benthic...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Christensen, BA, De Vleeschouwer, D, Henderiks, J, Groeneveld, J, Auer, G, Drury, AJ, Karatsolis, BT, Lyu, J, Betzler, C, Eberli, GP, Kroon, D
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Antarctic
Pacific
Indian
Broken Ridge
Antarc*
Online Access:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10135651/1/Christensen%20et%20al.,%202021%20-%202021GL095036.pdf
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10135651/
Description
Summary:This study provides a Miocene-to-recent history of Tasman Leakage (TL), driving surface-to-intermediate waters from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean. TL, in addition to Indonesian ThroughFlow (ITF), constitutes an important part of the Southern Hemisphere Supergyre. Here, we employ deep-sea benthic δ13C timeseries from the southwestern Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans to identify the history of Tasman Leakage. The δ13C results combined with sedimentary evidence show that an inter-ocean connection south of Australia existed from 7 Ma onward. A southward shift in Westerlies combined with a northward movement of Australia created the oceanic corridor necessary for Tasman Leakage (between Australia and the sub-Antarctic Front) at this time. Furthermore, changes in the northern limb of the Supergyre (ITF) are evident in the sedimentary record on Broken Ridge from ∼3 to 2 Ma when Banda Sea intermediate waters started originating from the North Pacific.

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