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Sea Surface Temperature of the Western Equatorial Pacific Ocean during the Younger Dryas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert C. Thunell
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, 29208
Qingmin Miao
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, 29208

Abstract

High resolution (∼200 yr sample spacing) records of sea surface temperature for the past 15,000 yr have been inferred from planktonic foraminiferal assemblages in a sediment core from the South China Sea. Although the assemblages imply a large glacial-to-interglacial temperature change (∼7°C for winter temperatures), they give no indication of a cooling during Younger Dryas time. This suggests that the Younger Dryas increase in δ18O observed in cores from the western equatorial Pacific is not due to a climatic cooling but rather to a change in the isotopic composition of the oceans.

Type
Short Paper
Copyright
University of Washington

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