The Cenozoic palaeoenvironment of the Arctic Ocean

• Published in: Nature
• Main Authors: Moran, Kathryn, Backman, Jan, Brinkhuis, Henk, Clemens, Steven C., Cronin, Thomas, Dickens, Gerald R., Eynaud, Frederique, Gattacceca, Jerome, Jakobsson, Martin, Jordan, Richard W., Kaminski, Michael, King, John Leslie, Koc, Nalan, Krylov, Alexey, Martinez, Nahysa, Matthiessen, Jens, McInroy, David, Moore, Theodore C., Onodera, Jonaotaro, O'Regan, Matthew, Palike, Heiko, Rea, Brice, Rio, Domenico, Sakamoto, Tatsuhiko, Smith, David C., Stein, Ruediger, St John, Kristen, Suto, Itsuki, Suzuki, Noritoshi, Takahashi, Kozo, Watanabe, Mahito, Yamamoto, Masanobu, Farrell, John, Frank, Martin, Kubik, Peter, Jokat, Wilfried, Kristoffersen, Yngve
• Other Authors: Univ Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA, Univ Rhode Isl, Grad Sch Oceanog, Narragansett, RI 02882 USA, Univ Rhode Isl, Dept Ocean Engn, Narragansett, RI 02882 USA, Stockholm Univ, Dept Geol & Geochem, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Univ Utrecht, Dept Biol, Palaeobot & Palynol Lab, NL-3584 DC Utrecht, Netherlands, Brown Univ, Dept Geol Sci, Providence, RI 02912 USA, US Geol Survey, Reston, VA 20192 USA, Rice Univ, Dept Earth Sci, Houston, TX 77251 USA, Univ Bordeaux, Dept Geol & Oceanog, F-33405 Talence, France, CNRS, CEREGE, Dept Geophys, F-13545 Aix En Provence, France, Yamagata Univ, Dept Earth & Environm Sci, Yamagata 9908560, Japan, UCL, Dept Earth Sci, London WC1E 6BT, England, Norwegian Polar Res Inst, Polar Environm Ctr, N-9296 Tromso, Norway, VNIIOkeangeol, Dept Lithol & Geochem, St Petersburg 190121, Russia, Boston Univ, Boston, MA 02215 USA, Alfred Wegener Inst Fdn Polar & Marine Res, D-27515 Bremerhaven, Germany, British Geol Survey, Edinburgh EH9 3LA, Midlothian, Scotland, Kyushu Univ, Dept Earth & Planetary Sci, Fukuoka 8128581, Japan, Univ Southampton, Natl Oceanog Ctr, Southampton SO14 3ZH, Hants, England, Univ Aberdeen, Dept Geog & Environm, Aberdeen AB24 3UF, Scotland, Univ Padua, Dept Geol Paleontol & Geophys, I-35137 Padua, Italy, JAMSTEC, IFREE, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 2370061, Japan, James Madison Univ, Dept Geol & Environm Sci, Harrisonburg, VA 22807 USA, Nagoya Univ, Dept Earth & Planetary Sci, Nagoya, Aichi 4648602, Japan, Tohoku Univ, Inst Geol & Palaeontol, Sendai, Miyagi 9808578, Japan, Geol Survey Japan, Inst Geosci, Ibaraki 3058567, Japan, Hokkaido Univ, Grad Sch Environm Earth Sci, Sapporo, Hokkaido 0600810, Japan, IFM GEOMAR, Leibniz Inst Marine Sci, D-24148 Kiel, Germany, ETH, Paul Scherrer Inst, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland, Univ Bergen, Dept Earth Sci, N-5007 Bergen, Norway, [e-mail]
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2006
• Subjects: Science; Arctic; Antarctic; Arctic Ocean; Greenland; Antarc*; Antarctica; Climate change; Iceberg*; Lomonosov Ridge; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/62499; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=16738653&dopt=citation; https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04800

The history of the Arctic Ocean during the Cenozoic era ( 0 - 65 million years ago) is largely unknown from direct evidence. Here we present a Cenozoic palaeoceanographic record constructed from >400 m of sediment core from a recent drilling expedition to the Lomonosov ridge in the Arctic Ocean. Our record shows a palaeoenvironmental transition from a warm 'greenhouse' world, during the late Palaeocene and early Eocene epochs, to a colder 'icehouse' world influenced by sea ice and icebergs from the middle Eocene epoch to the present. For the most recent similar to 14 Myr, we find sedimentation rates of 1 - 2 cm per thousand years, in stark contrast to the substantially lower rates proposed in earlier studies; this record of the Neogene reveals cooling of the Arctic that was synchronous with the expansion of Greenland ice (similar to 3.2 Myr ago) and East Antarctic ice (similar to 14 Myr ago). We find evidence for the first occurrence of ice-rafted debris in the middle Eocene epoch (similar to 45 Myr ago), some 35 Myr earlier than previously thought; fresh surface waters were present at,49 Myr ago, before the onset of ice-rafted debris. Also, the temperatures of surface waters during the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum (similar to 55 Myr ago) appear to have been substantially warmer than previously estimated. The revised timing of the earliest Arctic cooling events coincides with those from Antarctica, supporting arguments for bipolar symmetry in climate change. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62499/1/nature04800.pdf