A Warm, Stratified, and Restricted Labrador Sea Across the Middle Eocene and Its Climatic Optimum.

ABSTRACT: Several studies indicate that North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formation might have initiated during the globally warm Eocene (56-34 Ma). However, constraints on Eocene surface ocean conditions in source regions presently conducive to deep water formation are sparse. Here we test whether ocean conditions of the middle Eocene Labrador Sea might have allowed for deep water formation by applying (organic) geochemical and palynological techniques, on sediments from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 647. We reconstruct a long-term sea surface temperature (SST) drop from ~30°C to ~27°C between 41.5 to 38.5 Ma, based on TEX₈₆. Superimposed on this trend, we record ~2°C warming in SST associated with the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO; ~40 Ma), which is the northernmost MECO recor

SUBMITTER: Cramwinckel MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7590098 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature