Upwelling Intensification As Part of the Pliocene-Pleistocene Climate Transition
Abstract
A deep-sea sediment core underlying the Benguela upwelling system off southwest Africa provides a continuous time series of sea surface temperature (SST) for the past 4.5 million years. Our results indicate that temperatures in the region have declined by about 10°C since 3.2 million years ago. Records of paleoproductivity suggest that this cooling was associated with an increase in wind-driven upwelling tied to a shift from relatively stable global warmth during the mid-Pliocene to the high-amplitude glacial-interglacial cycles of the late Quaternary. These observations imply that Atlantic Ocean surface water circulation was radically different during the mid-Pliocene.
- Publication:
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Science
- Pub Date:
- December 2000
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.290.5500.2288
- Bibcode:
- 2000Sci...290.2288M
- Keywords:
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- ATMOS