Cold spells over Greenland during the mid-Pliocene Warm Period.

ABSTRACT: The mid-Pliocene Warm Period (mPWP; 3.26-3.02 Ma) is an interval often suggested as a potential analogue of the near future climate and fate of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). Here, neodymium and lead isotopes from marine sediment cores collected off the southern Greenland margin suggest pulses of intense glacial erosion of Precambrian terranes during this interval, while grain size data indicate a reduction in the strength of contour currents, both following a near obliquity cycle (~41 ka) pacing. These cold spells were thus sufficiently intense to trigger recurrent ice growth over Greenland, even under the high atmospheric CO₂ concentration (~400 ppmV) of the interval, before the intensification of the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (~2.7 Ma). However, the mPWP was marked by a

SUBMITTER: Sousa IMC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11847007 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature