El Nino-Southern Oscillation-like variability during glacial terminations and interlatitudinal teleconnections

• Published in: Paleoceanography
• Main Authors: Pena L. D., Cacho I., Ferretti P., Hall M. A.
• Other Authors: Pena, L. D., Cacho, I., Ferretti, P., Hall, M. A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Settore GEO/02 - Geologia Stratigrafica e Sedimentologica; Antarctic; Pacific; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10278/3711501; https://doi.org/10.1029/2008PA001620; https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2008PA001620

[1] Interannual-decadal variability in the equatorial Pacific El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) induces climate changes at global scale, but its potential influence during past global climate change is not yet well constrained. New high-resolution eastern equatorial Pacific proxy records of thermocline conditions present new evidence of strong orbital control in ENSO-like variability over the last 275,000 years. Recurrent intervals of saltier thermocline waters are associated with the dominance of La Nina-like conditions during glacial terminations, coinciding with periods of low precession and high obliquity. The parallel dominance of delta(13)C-depleted waters supports the advection of Antarctic origin waters toward the tropical thermocline. This "oceanic tunneling'' is proposed to have reinforced orbitally induced changes in ENSO-like variability, composing a complex high- and low-latitude feedback during glacial terminations.