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1.
Oxygen isotope analysis of benthic foraminifera in deep sea cores from the Atlantic and Southern Oceans shows that during the last interglacial period, North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) was 0.4 degrees +/- 0.2 degrees C warmer than today, whereas Antarctic Bottom Water temperatures were unchanged. Model simulations show that this distribution of deep water temperatures can be explained as a response of the ocean to forcing by high-latitude insolation. The warming of NADW was transferred to the Circumpolar Deep Water, providing additional heat around Antarctica, which may have been responsible for partial melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.  相似文献   

2.
During the past decade, geochemical paleoceanographers have begun to explore the changes in the circulation of the deep ocean that occurred during the glacial-interglacial cycles of the earth's recent history. The deep ocean was significantly colder during the glacial maximum. The distributions of biologically utilized elements (such as carbon and phosphorus) were significantly different as well; higher concentrations of these elements occurred in the deep (>2500 meters depth) North Atlantic, and lower concentrations occurred in the upper (<2500 meters depth) waters of the North Atlantic and possibly in all of the major ocean basins. In contrast, relatively subtle changes have been observed in the radiocarbon ages of deep waters. Slow deepwater changes are statistically linked to variations in the earth's orbit, but rapid changes in deepwater circulation also have occurred. Deepwater chemistry and circulation changes may control the variability in atmospheric CO(2) levels that have been documented from studies of air bubbles in polar ice cores.  相似文献   

3.
Evidence from a North Atlantic deep-sea sediment core reveals that the largest climatic perturbation in our present interglacial, the 8200-year event, is marked by two distinct cooling events in the subpolar North Atlantic at 8490 and 8290 years ago. An associated reduction in deep flow speed provides evidence of a significant change to a major downwelling limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. The existence of a distinct surface freshening signal during these events strongly suggests that the sequenced surface and deep ocean changes were forced by pulsed meltwater outbursts from a multistep final drainage of the proglacial lakes associated with the decaying Laurentide Ice Sheet margin.  相似文献   

4.
An outstanding climate anomaly 8200 years before the present (B.P.) in the North Atlantic is commonly postulated to be the result of weakened overturning circulation triggered by a freshwater outburst. New stable isotopic and sedimentological records from a northwest Atlantic sediment core reveal that the most prominent Holocene anomaly in bottom-water chemistry and flow speed in the deep limb of the Atlantic overturning circulation begins at approximately 8.38 thousand years B.P., coeval with the catastrophic drainage of Lake Agassiz. The influence of Lower North Atlantic Deep Water was strongly reduced at our site for approximately 100 years after the outburst, confirming the ocean's sensitivity to freshwater forcing. The similarities between the timing and duration of the pronounced deep circulation changes and regional climate anomalies support a causal link.  相似文献   

5.
Estimates of terrigenous fluxes at three different water depths at two sites in the equatorial Atlantic by normalization against excess (230)Th flux indicate that the flux of terrigenous material to the seafloor was significantly higher during the last glacial period than it is today. Fluxes started to decrease during deglaciation and reached minimal values in the middle of the Holocene. From 15,000 to 5,000 years ago, there was a substantial increase in flux with increasing water depth below 2,800 meters; this increase may reflect resuspension and lateral transport of slope and rise sediment, possibly because of intensification of deepwater circulation during that period.  相似文献   

6.
Deepwater formation in the North Atlantic by open-ocean convection is an essential component of the overturning circulation of the Atlantic Ocean, which helps regulate global climate. We use water-column radiocarbon reconstructions to examine changes in northeast Atlantic convection since the Last Glacial Maximum. During cold intervals, we infer a reduction in open-ocean convection and an associated incursion of an extremely radiocarbon ((14)C)-depleted water mass, interpreted to be Antarctic Intermediate Water. Comparing the timing of deep convection changes in the northeast and northwest Atlantic, we suggest that, despite a strong control on Greenland temperature by northeast Atlantic convection, reduced open-ocean convection in both the northwest and northeast Atlantic is necessary to account for contemporaneous perturbations in atmospheric circulation.  相似文献   

7.
Long sediment cores recovered from the deep portions of Lake Titicaca are used to reconstruct the precipitation history of tropical South America for the past 25,000 years. Lake Titicaca was a deep, fresh, and continuously overflowing lake during the last glacial stage, from before 25,000 to 15,000 calibrated years before the present (cal yr B.P.), signifying that during the last glacial maximum (LGM), the Altiplano of Bolivia and Peru and much of the Amazon basin were wetter than today. The LGM in this part of the Andes is dated at 21,000 cal yr B.P., approximately coincident with the global LGM. Maximum aridity and lowest lake level occurred in the early and middle Holocene (8000 to 5500 cal yr B.P.) during a time of low summer insolation. Today, rising levels of Lake Titicaca and wet conditions in Amazonia are correlated with anomalously cold sea-surface temperatures in the northern equatorial Atlantic. Likewise, during the deglacial and Holocene periods, there were several millennial-scale wet phases on the Altiplano and in Amazonia that coincided with anomalously cold periods in the equatorial and high-latitude North Atlantic, such as the Younger Dryas.  相似文献   

8.
Pore fluids from the upper 60 meters of sediment 3000 meters below the surface of the tropical Atlantic indicate that the oxygen isotopic composition (delta18O) of seawater at this site during the last glacial maximum was 0.8 ± 0.1 per mil higher than it is today. Combined with the delta18O change in benthic foraminifera from this region, the elevated ratio indicates that the temperature of deep water in the tropical Atlantic Ocean was 4°C colder during the last glacial maximum. Extrapolation from this site to a global average suggests that the ice volume contribution to the change in delta18O of foraminifera is 1.0 per mil, which partially reconciles the foraminiferal oxygen isotope record of tropical sea surface temperatures with estimates from Barbados corals and terrestrial climate proxies.  相似文献   

9.
Benthic foraminiferal faunas in a piston core from 3331 meters at 44 degrees N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge show striking variations in the relative abundance of species. Uvigerina peregrina, which is broadly distributed today in the South Atlantic and in the Pacific in water that has been long isolated from the surface, is absent in the North and Equatorial Atlantic at depths occupied by highly oxygenated North Atlantic deep water. This species dominated the fauna at this site for much of the past 150,000 years. It is suggested that North Atlantic deepwater production was much reduced or eliminated at times of Uvigerina peregrina abundance, as a result of cooling and stratification of the Norwegian Sea surface, coincident with the times of the southward migration of the polar front in the North Atlantic.  相似文献   

10.
Measurements of radon-222 in seawater suggest the following. The radium-226 content of surface water in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is uniformly close to about 4 x 10(-14) gram per liter. The deep Pacific has a concentration of radium-226 that is four times higher and the deep Atlantic a concentration twice as high as that of the surface. These distribution profiles can be explained by the same particle-settling rate for radium-226 from surface to depth for the two oceans and by a threefold longer residence time of water in the deep Pacific than in the deep Atlantic. The vertical distribution of the deficiency of radon-222 in the surface water of the northwest Pacific Ocean suggests a coefficient of vertical eddy diffusion as high as 120 square centimeters per second and a gas-exchange rate for carbon dioxide in surface water between 14 and 60 moles per square meter per year. Vertical profiles of the excess of radon-222 in near-bottom water of the South Atlantic give coefficients of vertical eddy diffusion ranging from 1.5 to more than 50 square centimeters per second.  相似文献   

11.
Variations in the cadmium/calcium ratio of North Atlantic Deep Water are recorded in the fossil shells of benthic foraminifera. The oceanic distribution of cadmium is similar to that of the nutrients, hence the cadmium/calcium ratio in shells records temporal variations in nutrient distributions. Data from a North Atlantic sediment core show that over the past 200,000 years there has been a continuous supply of nutrient-depleted waters into the deep North Atlantic. The intensity of this source relative to nutrient-enriched southern waters diminished by about a factor of 2 during severe glaciations. This evidence combined with carbon isotope data indicates that the continental carbon inventory may have been less variable than previously suggested.  相似文献   

12.
Subpolar North Atlantic proxy records document millennial-scale climate variations 500,000 to 340,000 years ago. The cycles have an approximately constant pacing that is similar to that documented for the last glacial cycle. These findings suggest that such climate variations are inherent to the late Pleistocene, regardless of glacial state. Sea surface temperature during the warm peak of Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS 11) varied by 0.5 degrees to 1 degrees C, less than the 4 degrees to 4.5 degrees C estimated during times of ice growth and the 3 degrees C estimated for glacial maxima. Coherent deep ocean circulation changes were associated with glacial oscillations in sea surface temperature.  相似文献   

13.
Hydrographic observations and measurements of the concentrations of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have suggested that the formation of Greenland Sea Deep Water (GSDW) slowed down considerably during the 1980s. Such a decrease is related to weakened convection in the Greenland Sea and thus could have significant impact on the properties of the waters flowing over the Scotland-Iceland-Greenland ridge system into the deep Atlantic. Study of the variability of GSDW formation is relevant for understanding the impact of the circulation in the European Polar seas on regional and global deep water characteristics. New long-term multitracer observations from the Greenland Sea show that GSDW formation indeed was greatly reduced during the 1980s. A box model of deepwater formation and exchange in the European Polar seas tuned by the tracer data indicates that the reduction rate of GSDW formation was about 80 percent and that the start date of the reduction was between 1978 and 1982.  相似文献   

14.
Decline of subpolar North Atlantic circulation during the 1990s   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
Observations of sea surface height reveal that substantial changes have occurred over the past decade in the mid- to high-latitude North Atlantic Ocean. TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data show that subpolar sea surface height increased during the 1990s, and the geostrophic velocity derived from altimeter data exhibits declining subpolar gyre circulation. Combining the data from earlier satellites, we find that subpolar circulation may have been weaker in the late 1990s than in the late 1970s and 1980s. Direct current-meter observations in the boundary current of the Labrador Sea support the weakening circulation trend of the 1990s and, together with hydrographic data, show that the mid- to late 1990s decline extends deep in the water column. Analysis of the local surface forcing suggests that the 1990s buoyancy forcing has a dynamic effect consistent with altimetric and hydrographic observations: A weak thermohaline forcing allows the decay of the domed structure of subpolar isopycnals and weakening of circulation.  相似文献   

15.
Oxygen-18 analyses of pelagic and benthic foraminifera from core K 11 indicate that during the last glaciation Norwegian Sea bottom waters were warmer than in modern times and had the same physical parameters (temperature, oxygen isotope ratio, and salinity) as the North Atlantic deep water. This result indicates that the glacial Norwegian Sea was not a sink for dense surface water, as it is now, and that during glacial times North Atlantic deep water invaded the deep Norwegian basin.  相似文献   

16.
About 70 percent of tropical western Atlantic mollusk species have become extinct since the Pliocene, which has led to perceptions of a corresponding decline in diversity. However, a compilation of gastropod species from Plio-Pleistocene faunas of the United States Atlantic coastal plain and from Recent western Atlantic faunas indicates that regional diversity has not changed since the Pliocene. Gastropod diversity in the Pliocene Pinecrest Beds in Florida approximates that seen today on either coast of Florida. Gastropod diversity is not demonstrably different in the Recent tropical western Atlantic than in the Recent tropical eastern Pacific. High extinction rates must have been balanced by high origination rates.  相似文献   

17.
Oppo DW  Lehman SJ 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》1993,259(5098):1148-1152
Holocene and glacial carbon isotope data of benthic foraminifera from shallow to mid-depth cores from the northeastern subpolar Atlantic show that this region was strongly stratified, with carbon-13-enriched glacial North Atlantic intermediate water (GNAIW) overlying carbon-13-depleted Southern Ocean water (SOW). The data suggest that GNAIW originated north of the polar front and define GNAIW end-member carbon isotope values for studies of water-mass mixing in the open Atlantic. Identical carbon isotope values in the core of GNAIW and below the subtropical thermocline are consistent with rapid cycling of GNAIW through the northern Atlantic. The high carbon isotope values below the thermocline indicate that enhanced nutrient leakage in response to increased ventilation may have extended into intermediate waters. Geochemical box models show that the atmospheric carbon dioxide response to nutrient leakage that results from an increase in ventilation rate may be greater than the response to nutrient redistribution by conversion of North Atlantic deep water into GNAIW. These results underscore the potential rule of Atlantic Ocean circulation changes in influencing past atmospheric carbon dioxide values.  相似文献   

18.
We use pore fluid measurements of the chloride concentration and the oxygen isotopic composition from Ocean Drilling Program cores to reconstruct salinity and temperature of the deep ocean during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Our data show that the temperatures of the deep Pacific, Southern, and Atlantic oceans during the LGM were relatively homogeneous and within error of the freezing point of seawater at the ocean's surface. Our chloride data show that the glacial stratification was dominated by salinity variations, in contrast with the modern ocean, for which temperature plays a primary role. During the LGM the Southern Ocean contained the saltiest water in the deep ocean. This reversal of the modern salinity contrast between the North and South Atlantic implies that the freshwater budget at the poles must have been quite different. A strict conversion of mean salinity at the LGM to equivalent sea-level change yields a value in excess of 140 meters. However, the storage of fresh water in ice shelves and/or groundwater reserves implies that glacial salinity is a poor predictor of mean sea level.  相似文献   

19.
During the warm early Pliocene (approximately 4.5 to 3.0 million years ago), the most recent interval with a climate warmer than today, the eastern Pacific thermocline was deep and the average west-to-east sea surface temperature difference across the equatorial Pacific was only 1.5 +/- 0.9 degrees C, much like it is during a modern El Ni?o event. Thus, the modern strong sea surface temperature gradient across the equatorial Pacific is not a stable and permanent feature. Sustained El Ni?o-like conditions, including relatively weak zonal atmospheric (Walker) circulation, could be a consequence of, and play an important role in determining, global warmth.  相似文献   

20.
The carbon-14 distribution in the abyssal waters of the world oceans indicates replacement times for Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic ocean deep waters (more than 1500 meters deep) of approximately 510, 250, and 275 years, respectively. The deep waters of the entire world ocean are replaced on average every 500 years.  相似文献   

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