Global cooling during the Eocene-Oligocene climate transition
Abstract
About 34 million years ago, Earth's climate shifted from a relatively ice-free world to one with glacial conditions on Antarctica characterized by substantial ice sheets. How Earth's temperature changed during this climate transition remains poorly understood, and evidence for Northern Hemisphere polar ice is controversial. Here, we report proxy records of sea surface temperatures from multiple ocean localities and show that the high-latitude temperature decrease was substantial and heterogeneous. High-latitude (45 degrees to 70 degrees in both hemispheres) temperatures before the climate transition were ∼20°C and cooled an average of ∼5°C. Our results, combined with ocean and ice-sheet model simulations and benthic oxygen isotope records, indicate that Northern Hemisphere glaciation was not required to accommodate the magnitude of continental ice growth during this time.
Date of this Version
2009
DOI
10.1126/science.1166368
Repository Citation
Liu, Zhonghui; Pagani, Mark; Zinniker, David; DeConto, Robert; Huber, Matthew; Brinkhuis, Henk; Shah, Sunita R.; Leckie, R. Mark; and Pearson, Ann, "Global cooling during the Eocene-Oligocene climate transition" (2009). Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Faculty Publications. Paper 60.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1166368
Volume
323
Issue
5918
Pages
1187-1190
Link Out to Full Text
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/323/5918/1187