Drilling Reveals Climatic Consequences of Tasmanian Gateway Opening

• Main Authors: Exon, Neville, Kennett, Jim, Malone, Mitch, Brinkhuis, Henk, Chaproniere, George, Ennyu, Atsuhito, Fothergill, Patrick, Fuller, Michael, Grauert, Marianne, Hill, Peter, Shevenell, Amelia E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Digital Commons @ University of South Florida 2002
• Subjects: Life Sciences; Pacific; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/579; https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1583&context=msc_facpub

One of the great stories of geoscience is how Gondwana broke up and the other southern continents drifted northward from Antarctica, which led to major changes in global climate. The recent drilling of Ocean Drilling Project (ODP) Leg 189 addressed in detail what happened as Australia drifted away from Antarctica and the Tasmanian Gateway opened. The drifting contributed to the change in global climate, from relatively warm early Cenozoic “greenhouse” conditions to late Cenozoic “icehouse” conditions. It isolated Antarctica from warm gyral surface currents from the north and provided the critical deepwater conduits that eventually led to ocean conveyor circulation between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.