North Atlantic ocean circulation and abrupt climate change during the last glaciation
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory · Columbia University · +3 more institutions
Abstract
The most recent ice age was characterized by rapid and hemispherically asynchronous climate oscillations, whose origin remains unresolved. Variations in oceanic meridional heat transport may contribute to these repeated climate changes, which were most pronounced during marine isotope stage 3, the glacial interval 25 thousand to 60 thousand years ago. We examined climate and ocean circulation proxies throughout this interval at high resolution in a deep North Atlantic sediment core, combining the kinematic tracer protactinium/thorium (Pa/Th) with the deep water-mass tracer, epibenthic δ(13)C. These indicators suggest reduced Atlantic overturning circulation during every cool northern stadial, with the greatest…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 23.29
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 56
Authors
6- LGL. Gene HenryCorresponding
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
- JFJerry F McManus
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
- WBWilliam B Curry
Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- NLNatalie L Roberts
University of Cambridge
- AMAlexander M. Piotrowski
University of Cambridge
Topics & keywords
- Shutdown of thermohaline circulation
- Stadial
- Glacial period
- Oceanography
- Thermohaline circulation
- Climate change
- Abrupt climate change
- Ocean current
- Life below water