COSEE Ocean Systems: News
A potential barrier to deep Antarctic circumpolar flow until the late Miocene?
Description: This paper present new evidence on the nature and age of the central Scotia Sea floor. Multibeam surveys and the first dredged samples indicate that a now-submerged remnant volcanic arc may have formed a barrier to deep eastward oceanic circulation until after the mid-Miocene climatic optimum. Inception and development of a full deep Antarctic Circumpolar Current may therefore have been important, not in the drop in global temperatures at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary as long surmised, but in the subsequent late Miocene global cooling and intensification of Antarctic glaciation. [Source: Geology]
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34352.1
Availability: Summary
Source: Geology
Publish Date: 7/11/2013
Reading Level: Expert
Page Length:  

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