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Causes of Antarctic Glaciation in the Cenozoic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

D.D. Kvasov
Affiliation:
Institute of Oceanology, Vasilyevsky Ostrov, 1 Liniya 30, Leningrad 199053, USSR
M.Ya. Verbitsky
Affiliation:
Institute of Oceanology, Vasilyevsky Ostrov, 1 Liniya 30, Leningrad 199053, USSR

Abstract

The causes of Antarctic glaciation are analyzed by means of numeral experiments based on the three-dimensional thermodynamic model of a large ice sheet. Refrigeration of the climate between the Eocene and the Oligocene was due to the opening of the passage south of Australia and to the formation of the South Ring Stream. Calculations have shown that this led to the development of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet which might have existed in spite of relatively high temperatures of the surrounding ocean air. A new cooling of the climate in the Middle Miocene is connected with the fact that the South Ring Stream found its way through the Drake Passage glaciers spreading on to the Western Antarctic. Between Miocene and Pliocene, glaciation of the South Polar regions was at its maximum due to the regression of the world ocean. In Quaternary time, sea level was lowering due to the glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere, which resulted in glacier growth in the Antarctic. The anticipated warming of the climate due to the activity of man is not likely to bring about any considerable change in the size of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

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