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Surface and Deep Ocean Interactions During the Cold Climate Event 8200 Years Ago

ocean thermohaline circulation system -CLIVAR diagram
CLIVAR diagram of ocean thermohaline circulation.

Surface and Deep Ocean Interactions During the Cold Climate Event 8200 Years Ago
Science
Vol. 312, Issue 5782, pp. 1929-1932, 30 June 2006.

Christopher R. W. Ellison1, Mark R. Chapman1, and Ian R. Hall2

1 School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
2 School of Earth, Ocean, and Planetary Sciences, Cardiff University, Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3YE, UK.
ABSTRACT:
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.
Download data from the WDC Paleo archive:
8200BP Event Foraminifer Data and Winter/Summer SST Reconstruction in Text or Microsoft Excel format.

To read or view the full study, please visit the Science website.
It was published in Science, Vol. 312, Issue 5782, pp. 1929-1932, 30 June 2006.
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