Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (15) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by McClymont, E. L. Articles by Rosell-Melé, A. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Links between the onset of modern Walker circulation and the mid-Pleistocene climate transition

¹ Department of Geography, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
² Institució Catalana de Recerca Estudis Avançats (ICREA) and Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain

Sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) reconstructed from Ocean Drilling Program Sites 806 and 849 in the western and eastern equatorial Pacific provide a history of the strength of the Walker circulation between 1.5 and 0.5 Ma. A progressive cooling in the eastern equatorial Pacific is paralleled by intensification of the equatorial zonal SST gradient that began 1.17 Ma, prior to the expansion of global ice volume associated with the mid-Pleistocene climate transition. The SSTs in the eastern equatorial Pacific and the zonal gradient reached modern values by 0.9 Ma. We propose that this onset and intensification of the modern Walker circulation reduced heat flux, but increased moisture transport to high latitudes, leading to the development of more extensive ice sheets and the shift toward the 100 ka world.

Key Words: El Niño–Southern Oscillation • Pacific • glaciation • Pleistocene • alkenone • ODP

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Sosdian and Y. Rosenthal Deep-Sea Temperature and Ice Volume Changes Across the Pliocene-Pleistocene Climate Transitions Science, July 17, 2009; 325(5938): 306 - 310. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. Honisch, N. G. Hemming, D. Archer, M. Siddall, and J. F. McManus Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration Across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition Science, June 19, 2009; 324(5934): 1551 - 1554. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Medina-Elizalde and D. W. Lea The Mid-Pleistocene Transition in the Tropical Pacific Science, November 11, 2005; 310(5750): 1009 - 1012. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]