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Subpolar Link to the Emergence of the Modern Equatorial Pacific Cold Tongue

Martínez-Garcia, A.; Rosell-Melé, A.; McClymont, E.L.; Gersonde, R.; Haug, G.

Authors

A. Martínez-Garcia

A. Rosell-Melé

R. Gersonde

G. Haug



Abstract

The cold upwelling “tongue” of the eastern equatorial Pacific is a central energetic feature of the ocean, dominating both the mean state and temporal variability of climate in the tropics and beyond. Recent evidence for the development of the modern cold tongue during the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition has been explained as the result of extratropical cooling that drove a shoaling of the thermocline. We have found that the sub-Antarctic and sub-Arctic regions underwent substantial cooling nearly synchronous to the cold tongue development, thereby providing support for this hypothesis. In addition, we show that sub-Antarctic climate changed in its response to Earth’s orbital variations, from a subtropical to a subpolar pattern, as expected if cooling shrank the warm-water sphere of the ocean and thus contracted the subtropical gyres.

Citation

Martínez-Garcia, A., Rosell-Melé, A., McClymont, E., Gersonde, R., & Haug, G. (2010). Subpolar Link to the Emergence of the Modern Equatorial Pacific Cold Tongue. Science, 328(5985), 1550-1553. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1184480

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jun 1, 2010
Deposit Date Oct 17, 2011
Journal Science
Print ISSN 0036-8075
Electronic ISSN 1095-9203
Publisher American Association for the Advancement of Science
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 328
Issue 5985
Pages 1550-1553
DOI https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1184480


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