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Oceanography of the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean Across the Oligocene-Miocene Transition

Liebrand, Diederik; Wade, Bridget S; Beddow, Helen M; King, David J; Harrison, Alexander D; Johnstone, Heather JH; Drury, Anna Joy; ... Lourens, Lucas J; + view all (2024) Oceanography of the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean Across the Oligocene-Miocene Transition. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology , 39 (7) , Article e2024PA004892. 10.1029/2024PA004892. Green open access

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Abstract

The functioning of the Pacific Ocean—the world's largest ocean—during a warmer-than-present paleoclimate state remains underexplored. We present planktonic and benthic foraminiferal stable oxygen (δ¹⁸O) and carbon (δ¹³C) isotope records from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Site U1334 that span the Oligocene-Miocene Transition (OMT) interval, from 24.15 to 21.95 million years ago (Ma). We reconstruct (sub-)surface and deep-water conditions and provide better constraints on the physical and chemical oceanography of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean (EEP). Positive trends in planktonic and benthic foraminiferal δ¹⁸O values, mark a largely uniform imprint of increased land-ice volume/global cooling on surface- and deep-waters. We document a delayed planktonic foraminiferal δ¹⁸O increase across the OMT as well as an increase in the amplitude variability of planktonic foraminiferal δ¹⁸O values on eccentricity timescales during the early Miocene. We interpret this as an enhanced glacioeustatic sea-level control on Atlantic-Pacific salinity exchange through the Central American Seaway (CAS) or as the onset of more variable surface currents and oceanic fronts in the EEP. Positive trends in planktonic and benthic foraminiferal δ¹³C values characterize the whole-ocean depletion in 12C linked to organic carbon burial during the Oligocene-Miocene carbon maximum (CM-OM). However, this depletion is more pronounced in the planktonic foraminiferal δ¹³C record, especially during ∼400 Kyr eccentricity minima, reflecting an increase in nutrient upwelling and the efficacy of the biological carbon pump (BCP) when global temperatures decreased across the OMT and during the early Miocene. Our study highlights the dynamic behavior of the EEP in a warmer-than-present unipolar icehouse state.

Type: Article
Title: Oceanography of the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean Across the Oligocene-Miocene Transition
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1029/2024PA004892
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1029/2024PA004892
Language: English
Additional information: © 2024. The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Oligocene Miocene, Central American Seaway, eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, planktonic foraminifera, biological carbon pump, isotope gradients
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10194294
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