PROGRESSIVE VENTILATION OF THE OCEANS - POTENTIAL FOR RETURN TO ANOXIC CONDITIONS IN THE POST-PALEOZOIC

• Main Authors: Wilde, Pat, Berry, William B.N.
• Other Authors: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Physics Division.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1980
• Subjects: 54 Environmental Sciences; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc827771/

After the ventilation of the residual anoxic layer in the late Paleozoic (Berry and Wilde, 1978) a return to ephemeral anoxic conditions in the ocean is suggested by anoxic sediments found in the Mesozoic cores of the deep-sea drilling program (Schlanger and Jenkyns 1977, and Theide and Van Andel 1977). A preliminary physical oceanographic model is presented to explain the development of oxygen depleted layers in mid-waters below the surface wind-mixed layer during non-glacial climates. The model shows the range of temperature, salinity and density values for hypothetical water masses for two climatically related oceanographic situations: Case A where bottom waters are formed at mid-latitudes at the surface salinity maxima, and Case B where bottom waters are produced at high latitudes but not by sea-ice formation as in the modern ocean. The hypothetical water masses are characterized by examples from the modern ocean and extrapolation to non-glacial times is made by eliminating water masses produced by or influenced by sea-ice formation in modern glacial times. The state of oxidation is made by plotting the model water masses on an oxygen saturation diagram and comparing the relative oxygen capacity with modern conditions of zonal organic productivity. The model indicates for Case A (high latitude temperatures above 5°C) two oxygen, depleted layers in the equatorial regions (1) from about 200m to the depth of completed oxidation of surface material separated by an oxygenated zone to (2) a deep depleted zone along the base of the pycnocline at 2900 M. The deep depleted zone extends along the Case A pycnocline polarward toward the high latitude productivity maximum. For case B with a pycnocline at about 1500m the deep anoxic layer is not sustained. Considerations of density only, suggest that neutral stratification and the potential for overturn is enhanced for climates transitional between Case A and Case B where the density contrast between major water masses formed at high latitudes and mid-latitudes is minimal or non-existent.