Cenozoic Deep-Sea Temperatures and Global Ice Volumes from Mg/Ca in Benthic Foraminiferal Calcite

2000/01/14 by Caroline H. Lear, Henry Elderfield, Paul A. Wilson · 12 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Marine Biology and Ecology Research

paper · doi:10.1126/science.287.5451.269

openalex publication_date 2000/01/14 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

A deep-sea temperature record for the past 50 million years has been produced from the magnesium/calcium ratio (Mg/Ca) in benthic foraminiferal calcite. The record is strikingly similar in form to the corresponding benthic oxygen isotope (delta(18)O) record and defines an overall cooling of about 12 degrees C in the deep oceans with four main cooling periods. Used in conjunction with the benthic delta(18)O record, the magnesium temperature record indicates that the first major accumulation of Antarctic ice occurred rapidly in the earliest Oligocene (34 million years ago) and was not accompanied by a decrease in deep-sea temperatures.

Citations

• High‐resolution (104 years) deep‐sea foraminiferal stable isotope records of the Eocene‐Oligocene climate transition

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• Global Cooling During the Eocene-Oligocene Climate Transition
• Increased seasonality through the Eocene to Oligocene transition in northern high latitudes
• A paired apatite and calcite clumped isotope thermometry approach to estimating Cambro-Ordovician seawater temperatures and isotopic composition
• Carbon cycle feedbacks and the initiation of Antarctic glaciation in the earliest Oligocene
• Resolving a late Oligocene conundrum: Deep-sea warming and Antarctic glaciation
• Final closure of Panama and the onset of northern hemisphere glaciation
• The evolution of arid ecosystems in eastern Africa
• Oligocene [wikipedia]