Onset of Mediterranean outflow into the North Atlantic

F. Javier Hernandez-Molina , Dorrik A. V. Stow , Carlos A. Alvarez-Zarikian , Gary Acton , Andre Bahr , Barbara Balestra , Emmanuelle Ducassou , Roger Flood , Jose-Abel Flores , Satoshi Furota , Patrick Grunert , David Hodell , Francisco Jimenez-Espejo , Jin Kyoung Kim , Lawrence Krissek , Junichiro Kuroda , Baohua Li , Estefania Llave , Johanna Lofi (1) , Lucas Lourens , Madeline Miller , Futoshi Nanayama , Naohisa Nishida , Carl Richter , Cristina Roque , Helder Pereira , Maria Fernanda Sanchez Goni , Francisco J. Sierro , Arun Deo Singh , Et Al.

1 Transferts en milieux poreux

Sediments cored along the southwestern Iberian margin during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 339 provide constraints on Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) circulation patterns from the Pliocene epoch to the present day. After the Strait of Gibraltar opened (5.33 million years ago), a limited volume of MOW entered the Atlantic. Depositional hiatuses indicate erosion by bottom currents related to higher volumes of MOW circulating into the North Atlantic, beginning in the late Pliocene. The hiatuses coincide with regional tectonic events and changes in global thermohaline circulation (THC). This suggests that MOW influenced Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), THC, and climatic shifts by contributing a component of warm, saline water to northern latitudes while in turn being influenced by plate tectonics.

Mots clés: Paleoceanography

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère

F. Javier Hernandez-Molina, Dorrik A. V. Stow, Carlos A. Alvarez-Zarikian, Gary Acton, Andre Bahr, et al.. Onset of Mediterranean outflow into the North Atlantic. Science, 2014, 344 (6189), pp.1244-1250. ⟨10.1126/science.1251306⟩. ⟨hal-01054316⟩