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Title: The impacts of deglacial meltwater forcing on the South Atlantic Ocean deep circulation since the Last Glacial Maximum

Abstract

A NCAR-CCSM3 (National Center for Atmospheric Research – Community Climate System Model version 3) state-of-the-art transient paleoclimate simulation with prescribed freshwater inflows is used to investigate the changes and evolution of the South Atlantic water mass structure from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the present day. Model results show that 21 000 yr ago the water column was substantially stratified due to the presence of a saltier-than-today Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), forming a salinity barrier that prevented dense waters from the Northern Hemisphere from sinking. This salinity barrier started to erode after the termination of the Heinrich event 1, when its associated meltwater was transported southward, freshening the AABW. The removal of the barrier after 14 ka triggered the production of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), which spread into the deeper layers of the South Atlantic at the onset of the Holocene. At this point, the NADW acquired its modern-day structure, establishing a deeper Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC).

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Sao Paulo (Brazil). Inst. of Oceanography
  2. Federal Univ. of Rio Grande do Sul, Rio Grande (Brazil). Inst. of Oceanography
  3. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Center for Climatic Research
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1565250
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Climate of the Past (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Climate of the Past (Online); Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 1814-9332
Publisher:
European Geophysical Union - Copernicus
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Geology; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences

Citation Formats

Marson, J. M., Wainer, I., Mata, M. M., and Liu, Z. The impacts of deglacial meltwater forcing on the South Atlantic Ocean deep circulation since the Last Glacial Maximum. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.5194/cp-10-1723-2014.
Marson, J. M., Wainer, I., Mata, M. M., & Liu, Z. The impacts of deglacial meltwater forcing on the South Atlantic Ocean deep circulation since the Last Glacial Maximum. United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1723-2014
Marson, J. M., Wainer, I., Mata, M. M., and Liu, Z. Wed . "The impacts of deglacial meltwater forcing on the South Atlantic Ocean deep circulation since the Last Glacial Maximum". United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1723-2014. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1565250.
@article{osti_1565250,
title = {The impacts of deglacial meltwater forcing on the South Atlantic Ocean deep circulation since the Last Glacial Maximum},
author = {Marson, J. M. and Wainer, I. and Mata, M. M. and Liu, Z.},
abstractNote = {A NCAR-CCSM3 (National Center for Atmospheric Research – Community Climate System Model version 3) state-of-the-art transient paleoclimate simulation with prescribed freshwater inflows is used to investigate the changes and evolution of the South Atlantic water mass structure from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the present day. Model results show that 21 000 yr ago the water column was substantially stratified due to the presence of a saltier-than-today Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), forming a salinity barrier that prevented dense waters from the Northern Hemisphere from sinking. This salinity barrier started to erode after the termination of the Heinrich event 1, when its associated meltwater was transported southward, freshening the AABW. The removal of the barrier after 14 ka triggered the production of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), which spread into the deeper layers of the South Atlantic at the onset of the Holocene. At this point, the NADW acquired its modern-day structure, establishing a deeper Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC).},
doi = {10.5194/cp-10-1723-2014},
journal = {Climate of the Past (Online)},
number = 5,
volume = 10,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Wed Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}

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Cited by: 10 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Meltwater discharges from the Northern (red line) and Southern (blue line) hemispheres (a) (1 m kyr−1 =1m of equivalent global sea level rise per 1000 years = 0.0115 Sv) (He, 2011). The main climatic events in the last deglaciation are also marked: Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Heinrich eventmore » 1 (H1), Bølling–Allerød (BA), Younger Dryas (YD) and Holocene. Locations where the meltwater was injected into the TraCE-21K simulation (b)(adapted from He, 2011)« less

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Southwest Pacific Vertical Structure Influences on Oceanic Carbon Storage Since the Last Glacial Maximum
journal, May 2019

  • Clementi, Vincent J.; Sikes, Elisabeth L.
  • Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology
  • DOI: 10.1029/2018pa003501

Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.