Climate- and gateway-driven cooling of Late Eocene to earliest Oligocene sea surface temperatures in the North Sea Basin

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Śliwińska, Kasia K., Thomsen, Erik, Schouten, Stefan, Schoon, Petra L., Heilmann-Clausen, Claus
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Newfoundland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/climate-and-gatewaydriven-cooling-of-late-eocene-to-earliest-oligocene-sea-surface-temperatures-in-the-north-sea-basin(c97fe435-0be0-4b06-9034-95d4b74adaca).html; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41013-7; http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062997482&partnerID=8YFLogxK; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41013-7.pdf

During the late Eocene, the Earth’s climate experienced several transient temperature fluctuations including the Vonhof cooling event (C16n.1n; ~35.8 Ma) hitherto known mainly from the southern oceans. Here we reconstruct sea-surface temperatures (SST) and provide δ 18 O and δ 13 C foraminiferal records for the late Eocene and earliest Oligocene in the North Sea Basin. Our data reveal two main perturbations: (1), an abrupt brief cooling of ~4.5 °C dated to ~35.8 Ma and synchronous with the Vonhof cooling, which thus may be a global event, and (2) a gradual nearly 10 °C temperature fall starting at 36.1 Ma and culminating near the Eocene-Oligocene transition at ~33.9 Ma. The late Priabonian temperature trend in the North Sea shows some resemblance IODP Site U1404 from the North Atlantic, offshore Newfoundland; and is in contrast to the more abrupt change observed in the deep-sea δ 18 O records from the southern oceans. The cooling in the North Sea is large compared to the pattern seen in the North Atlantic record. This difference may be influenced by a late Eocene closure of the warm gateways connecting the North Sea with the Atlantic and Tethys oceans.