Norris, Richard D. et al. (2002): Jiggling the tropical thermostat in the Cretaceous hothouse

Leg/Site/Hole:
DSDP 14
DSDP 14 144
Identifier:
2002-030917
georefid
Creator:
Norris, Richard D.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole, MA, United States
author
Bice, Karen L.
Arizona State University, United States
author
Magno, Elizabeth A.
Southampton Oceanography Centre, United Kingdom
author
Wilson, Paul A.
author
Identification:
Jiggling the tropical thermostat in the Cretaceous hothouse
2002
Geology (Boulder)
Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, United States
30
4
299-302
Modern open-ocean sea-surface temperatures rarely exceed approximately 28-29 degrees C, and the same has been thought to represent a rough maximum for past tropical climates. However, new isotopic estimates from the uppermost Cenomanian in the tropical western North Atlantic suggest that mixed-layer temperatures reached approximately 33-34 degrees C (+ or -2 degrees C) during the middle Cretaceous hothouse. Uppermost Cenomanian tropical sea-surface temperatures may have been as much as 4-7 degrees C warmer than the highest modern mean annual temperatures. Such extreme conditions suggest that warm tropical oceans could have driven substantially intensified atmospheric heat transport near the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary. The tropical "thermostat" was set higher than today, challenging the hypothesis of tropical climate stability.
English
Serial
Coverage:Geographic coordinates:
North:9.2714
West:-54.2031East: -54.2031
South:9.2714
Stratigraphy; assemblages; Atlantic Ocean; biochemistry; climate change; cores; Cretaceous; Deep Sea Drilling Project; Demerara Rise; DSDP Site 144; Equatorial Atlantic; Foraminifera; geochemistry; Globigerinacea; Globigerinelloides; Hedbergella; Heterohelix; Invertebrata; isotope ratios; isotopes; Leg 14; marine environment; Mesozoic; microfossils; North Atlantic; Northwest Atlantic; O-18/O-16; oxygen; paleoclimatology; paleoecology; paleotemperature; planktonic taxa; Protista; Rotaliina; sea-surface temperature; stable isotopes; tropical environment;
.