HR: 16:30h
AN: PP54B-03    [Abstracts]
TI: The Mid-Pleistocene Transition In The Tropical Pacific
AU: * Medina-Elizalde, M A
EM: martinmedina@umail.ucsb.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Earth Science 552 University Rd - Bldg 526, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9630 United States
AU: Lea, D W
EM: lea@geol.ucsb.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Earth Science 552 University Rd - Bldg 526, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9630 United States
AB: During the mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT) at ~950 kyr B.P., the climate of the Earth underwent profound changes. As suggested by foraminiferal oxygen isotopic records, high latitude climate switched from 41,000 years (kyr) to ~100 kyr dominant cycles at this time. A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the MPT which involve high latitude northern hemisphere processes. Recent paleoclimate reconstructions, however, indicate that the tropics also experienced climate changes resembling those at high latitude but also with their own unique patterns, which cannot be fully explained by current hypotheses. A sea surface temperature (SST) record based on planktonic foraminiferal Mg/Ca from the western equatorial Pacific (WEP) warm pool ODP Hole 806B reveals that glacial-interglacial (G-I) oscillations in SST also shifted from a period of 41 kyr to 100 kyr during the MPT. This observation is in agreement with the SST records from core MD97-2140, a site to the northwest of Hole 806B, and from ODP Hole 846 in the eastern equatorial Pacific cold tongue, which also show a shift in the dominant periodicity. Hole 806B SST average (27.8°C) and range (3°C) remained the same over the MPT with typical glacial and interglacial SSTs of 26°C and 29°C, respectively. Hole 806B SST lead foraminiferal d18O by 4± 3 kyr over the MPT in agreement with paired records from core MD97-2140 and Hole 846. SST cycles across the MPT have similar magnitude and are synchronous in both the western and the eastern equatorial Pacific but preceded changes in continental ice volume. Today, eastern equatorial Pacific SSTs are strongly influenced by wind-driven thermocline depth changes. In contrast, in the WEP, where the thermocline is very deep, SSTs are less likely to be affected by thermocline depth changes. The nature of tropical SST variability over the mid-Pleistocene transition is remarkably similar to late Pleistocene climate observations and implicates atmospheric greenhouse forcing as the cause of the switch in climate periodicities at this time.
DE: 1041 Stable isotope geochemistry (0454, 4870)
DE: 1050 Marine geochemistry (4835, 4845, 4850)
DE: 4930 Greenhouse gases
DE: 4954 Sea surface temperature
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005