Identification

Title

Surface ocean cooling in the Eocene North Atlantic coincides with declining atmospheric CO2

Abstract

The Eocene (56-34 million years ago) is characterized by declining sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the low latitudes (similar to 4 degrees C) and high southern latitudes (similar to 8-11 degrees C), in accord with decreasing CO2 estimates. However, in the mid-to-high northern latitudes there is no evidence for surface water cooling, suggesting thermal decoupling between northern and southern hemispheres and additional non-CO2 controls. To explore this further, we present a multi-proxy (Mg/Ca, delta O-18, TEX86) SST record from Bass River in the western North Atlantic. Our compiled multi-proxy SST record confirms a net decline in SSTs (similar to 4 degrees C) between the early Eocene Climatic Optimum (53.3-49.1 Ma) and mid-Eocene (similar to 44-41 Ma), supporting declining atmospheric CO2 as the primary mechanism of Eocene cooling. However, from the mid-Eocene onwards, east-west North Atlantic temperature gradients exhibit different trends, which we attribute to incursion of warmer waters into the eastern North Atlantic and inception of Northern Component Water across the early-middle Eocene transition.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7320105

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2023-12-28T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact