Cenozoic evolution of deep ocean temperature from clumped isotope thermometry
Abstract
Characterizing past climate states is crucial for understanding the future consequences of ongoing greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we revisit the benchmark time series for deep ocean temperature across the past 65 million years using clumped isotope thermometry. Our temperature estimates from the deep Atlantic Ocean are overall much warmer compared with oxygen isotope-based reconstructions, highlighting the likely influence of changes in deep ocean pH and/or seawater oxygen isotope composition on classical oxygen isotope records of the Cenozoic. In addition, our data reveal previously unrecognized large swings in deep ocean temperature during early Eocene acute greenhouse warmth. Our results call for a reassessment of the Cenozoic history of ocean temperatures to achieve a more accurate understanding of the nature of climatic responses to tectonic events and variable greenhouse forcing.
Citation
Meckler , A N , Sexton , P F , Piasecki , A M , Leutert , T J , Marquardt , J , Ziegler , M , Agterhuis , T , Lourens , L J , Rae , J W B , Barnet , J , Tripati , A & Bernasconi , S M 2022 , ' Cenozoic evolution of deep ocean temperature from clumped isotope thermometry ' , Science , vol. 377 , no. 6601 , pp. 86-90 . https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abk0604
Publication
Science
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0036-8075Type
Journal article
Description
Funding: This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (MHV fellowship to A.N.M.); the European Research Council (starting grant 638467 to A.N.M. and starting grant 805246 to J.W.B.R.); the Trond Mohn Foundation (starting grant BFS2015REK01 to A.N.M.); the Norwegian Research Council (infrastructure grant 245907 to A.N.M.); the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC grant NE/P019331/1 to P.F.S.); the Dutch Research Council (NWO VIDI project 016.161.365 to M.Z.); the Heising Simons Foundation (grant 2022-3314 to A.T.); and the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (NESSC) (L.J.L.).Collections
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