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PALEOCEANOGRAPHY

Eastern Equatorial Pacific 5 Myr Alkenone SST and Paleoproductivity Reconstruction

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Lawrence, K.T., Z. Liu and T.D. Herbert. 2006. Evolution of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Through Plio-Pleistocene Glaciation. Science, 312, 79-83.
Data Coverage North: -3.1 * South: -3.1
West: -90.82 * East: -90.82
Altitude: -3296 m

Start Year: 5089802 14C yr BP * End Year: 5228 14C yr BP

Data:     Please Cite Data Contributors!
  lawrence2006
  odp846l6-tab.txt

Summary:

A tropical Pacific climate state resembling that of a permanent El Niño is hypothesized to have ended as a result of a reorganization of the ocean heat budget ~3 million years ago, a time when large ice sheets appeared in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. We report a high-resolution alkenone reconstruction of conditions in the heart of the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) cold tongue that reflects the combined influences of changes in the equatorial thermocline, the properties of the thermocline's source waters, atmospheric greenhouse gas content, and orbital variations on sea surface temperature (SST) and biological productivity over the past 5 million years. Our data indicate that the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation ~3 million years ago did not interrupt an almost monotonic cooling of the EEP during the Plio-Pleistocene. SST and productivity in the eastern tropical Pacific varied in phase with global ice volume changes at a dominant 41,000-year (obliquity) frequency throughout this time. Changes in the Southern Hemisphere most likely modulated most of the changes observed.
More Info on Paleoceanography Data

Parameters:

radiocarbon years before 1950AD; Sea Surface Temperature from Uk'37; C37 alkenone abundance (nmol/g)

Complete XML Record:

noaa-ocean-2648  (Last Revised: 2008-04-10 )

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