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Major Change in Atlantic Deep and Bottom Waters 700,000 yr Ago: Benthonic Foraminiferal Evidence from the South Atlantic1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

L. C. Peterson  and
G. P. Lohmann
L. C. Peterson
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912
G. P. Lohmann
Affiliation:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
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Abstract

In the modern South Atlantic the transition between deep water and bottom water is marked by a clear change in the associated benthonic foraminiferal fauna. Uvigerina and Globocassidulina characterize oxygen-poor Circumpolar Deep Water which has long been isolated from the surface. Planulina and miliolids are found associated with the more newly formed, oxygen-rich North Atlantic Deep Water. Antarctic Bottom Water is characterized by “Epistominella” umbonifera. Analysis of the benthonic foraminiferal faunas in two sediment cores recovered from the Vema and Hunter Channels in the western South Atlantic shows that the level of the transition between deep and bottom waters shallowed sharply about 700,000 yr ago. This rise indicates a sharp, sustained increase in the volume of bottom water flowing through the South Atlantic after this time. Prior to about 700,000 yr ago, the amount of Antarctic Bottom Water entering the western South Atlantic was greatly reduced and Circumpolar Deep Water apparently accounted for the bulk of northward flow. Production of southward-flowing North Atlantic Deep Water seems not to have been affected. The timing of this change in circulation regime suggests a possible causal link to similar changes in records of terrestrial and sea-surface climate.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 1982 , pp. 26 - 38
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Contribution No. 4861.

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