Australian shelf sediments reveal shifts in Miocene Southern Hemisphere westerlies.

ABSTRACT: Global climate underwent a major reorganization when the Antarctic ice sheet expanded ~14 million years ago (Ma) (1). This event affected global atmospheric circulation, including the strength and position of the westerlies and the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), and, therefore, precipitation patterns (2-5). We present new shallow-marine sediment records from the continental shelf of Australia (International Ocean Discovery Program Sites U1459 and U1464) providing the first empirical evidence linking high-latitude cooling around Antarctica to climate change in the (sub)tropics during the Miocene. We show that Western Australia was arid during most of the Middle Miocene. Southwest Australia became wetter during the Late Miocene, creating a climate gradient with t

SUBMITTER: Groeneveld J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5425240 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature