Evidence for ephemeral middle Eocene to early Oligocene Greenland glacial ice and pan-Arctic sea ice

Tripati, Aradhna; Darby, Dennis

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03180-5

Title: Evidence for ephemeral middle Eocene to early Oligocene Greenland glacial ice and pan-Arctic sea ice

Journal Article · Mon Mar 12 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03180-5· OSTI ID:1523507

Tripati, Aradhna ^[1]; Darby, Dennis ^[2]

Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, California Nanosystems Institute; Univ. of Western Brittany, Brest (France). European Inst. of Marine Sciences (IUEM)
Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA (United States). Dept. of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences

Earth’s modern climate is defined by the presence of ice at both poles, but that ice is now disappearing. Therefore understanding the origin and causes of polar ice stability is more critical than ever. Here we provide novel geochemical data that constrain past dynamics of glacial ice on Greenland and Arctic sea ice. Based on accurate source determinations of individual ice-rafted Fe-oxide grains, we find evidence for episodic glaciation of distinct source regions on Greenland as far-ranging as ~68°N and ~80°N synchronous with ice-rafting from circum-Arctic sources, beginning in the middle Eocene. Glacial intervals broadly coincide with reduced CO₂, with a potential threshold for glacial ice stability near ~500 p.p.m.v. The middle Eocene represents the Cenozoic onset of a dynamic cryosphere, with ice in both hemispheres during transient glacials and substantial regional climate heterogeneity. A more stable cryosphere developed at the Eocene-Oligocene transition, and is now threatened by anthropogenic emissions.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0010288

OSTI ID:: 1523507

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 37 works

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