Middle Miocene Southern Ocean Cooling and Antarctic Cryosphere Expansion
Magnesium/calcium data from Southern Ocean planktonic foraminifera demonstrate that high-latitude (∼55°S) southwest Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) cooled 6° to 7°C during the middle Miocene climate transition (14.2 to 13.8 million years ago). Stepwise surface cooling is paced by eccentricit...
Published in: | Science |
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Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Digital Commons @ University of South Florida
2004
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/583 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1100061 |
Summary: | Magnesium/calcium data from Southern Ocean planktonic foraminifera demonstrate that high-latitude (∼55°S) southwest Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) cooled 6° to 7°C during the middle Miocene climate transition (14.2 to 13.8 million years ago). Stepwise surface cooling is paced by eccentricity forcing and precedes Antarctic cryosphere expansion by ∼60 thousand years, suggesting the involvement of additional feedbacks during this interval of inferred low-atmospheric partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2). Comparing SSTs and global carbon cycling proxies challenges the notion that episodic pCO2 drawdown drove this major Cenozoic climate transition. SST, salinity, and ice-volume trends suggest instead that orbitally paced ocean circulation changes altered meridional heat/vapor transport, triggering ice growth and global cooling. |
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