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Surface Ocean Cooling in the Eocene North Atlantic Coincides With Declining Atmospheric CO2

Inglis, Gordon N; Bhatia, Rehemat; Evans, David; Zhu, Jiang; Müller, Wolfgang; Mattey, David; Thornalley, David JR; ... Wade, Bridget S; + view all (2023) Surface Ocean Cooling in the Eocene North Atlantic Coincides With Declining Atmospheric CO2. Geophysical Research Letters , 50 (24) , Article e2023GL105448. 10.1029/2023gl105448. Green open access

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Abstract

The Eocene (56–34 million years ago) is characterized by declining sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the low latitudes (∼4°C) and high southern latitudes (∼8–11°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, δ18O, TEX86) SST record from Bass River in the western North Atlantic. Our compiled multi‐proxy SST record confirms a net decline in SSTs (∼4°C) between the early Eocene Climatic Optimum (53.3–49.1 Ma) and mid‐Eocene (∼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.

Type: Article
Title: Surface Ocean Cooling in the Eocene North Atlantic Coincides With Declining Atmospheric CO2
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1029/2023gl105448
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2023gl105448
Language: English
Additional information: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords: Cenozoic temperature, multi-proxy, North Atlantic eocene, foraminifera
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10184562
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