Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-23T03:56:33.705Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Abrupt Climatic Change at 90,000 yr BP: Faunal Evidence from Gulf of Mexico Cores

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James P. Kennett  and
Paul Huddlestun
James P. Kennett
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881 USA.
Paul Huddlestun
Affiliation:
Georgia Dept. Mines, Mining and Geology, 69 Hunter S.W., Atlanta, Georgia USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Planktonic foraminiferal studies have been carried out on 28 piston cores of late Pleistocene age from the western Gulf of Mexico, an area of high sedimentation rates. For the interval between 73 × 103 and 95 × 103 yr BP, two of these cores have sedimentation rates of 12 and 15 cm/1000 yr. Calculation of the speed of faunal changes within this interval reveals an extremely rapid paleoclimatic-paleooceanographic change at approximately 90 × 103 years BP. Several species including distinctly warm-sensitive forms, then disappeared from the Gulf of Mexico in less than 350 yr, leaving a depleted planktonic foraminiferal fauna greatly dominated by only three species with little apparent temperature preference. This fauna existed for 2.5 × 103 yr after which distinctly cooler water elements increased in abundance rapidly and formed a high frequency peak approx 83.5–85 × 103 years BP. This increase in cooler water elements reflects either a return to more stable environmental conditions or a lag in their migration to the Gulf of Mexico after the severe climatic cooling, rather than further cooling.

The faunal event in the Gulf of Mexico correlates with an even more spectacular event recorded in the Greenland ice sheet by a drop in 18O values within a time interval of only about 100 yr (Dansgaard et al., 1971, 1972). A possibly correlative climatic event of similarly rapid nature has also been reported for speleothems from southern France (Duplessy et al., 1970).

The paleoclimatic event is closely associated stratigraphically with a widespread volcanic ash layer, although it is possibly significant that the increased volcanism occurred 1000 yr after the paleoclimatic event. A rapid lowering of the lysocline occurs simultaneously with the paleoclimatic event although faunal diversity is low in the succeeding fauna despite decreased calcium carbonate solution. Both the association with volcanism and changes in the position of the lysocline may be significant in consideration of mechanisms of such rapid climatic changes. In turn, such rapid paleoclimatic-paleooceanographic changes as observed in tropical Gulf of Mexico cores, in the Greenland ice sheet and in caves of southern France must be considered in the evaluation of causal mechanisms of glacial and interglacial oscillations.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , November 1972 , pp. 384 - 395
Copyright
Academic Press, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berger, W.H. 1970 Planktonic foraminifera: selective solution and the lysocline Marine Geology 2 111 138 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broecker, W.S. Ku, T.L. 1969 Caribbean cores P 6304-8 and P 6304-9: new analysis of absolute chronology Science 166 404 406 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broecker, W.S. Van Donk, J. 1970 Insolation changes, ice volumes, and the O18 record in deep-sea cores Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics 2 1 169 198 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dansgaard, W. Johnsen, S.J. Clausen, H.B. Langway, C.C. 1971 Climatic record revealed by the Camp Century ice core Turekian, K.K. Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages Yale University Press 37 56 Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W. Johnsen, S.J. Clausen, H.B. Langway, C.C. Jr. 1972 Speculations about the next glaciation Quaternary Research 2 396 398 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duplessy, J.C. Labeyrie, J. Lalou, C. Nguyen, H.V. 1970 Continental climatic variations between 130,000 and 90,000 years B.P. Nature 226 631 633 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emiliani, C. 1966 Paleotemperature analysis of Caribbean cores P 6304-8 and P 6304-9 and a generalized temperature curve for the past 425,000 years Journal of Geology 74 109 126 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emiliani, C. 1969 A new paleontology Micropaleontology 15 265 300 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emiliani, C. 1971 The last interglacial: paleotemperatures and chronology Science 171 571 573 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ericson, D.B. Wollin, G. 1968 Pleistocene climates and chronology in deep-sea sediments Science 162 1227 1234 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ewing, M. Ericson, D.B. Heezen, B.C. 1958 Sediments and topography of the Gulf of Mexico Weeks, L.G. Habitat of Oil: American Association of Petroleum Geologists 995 1053 Google Scholar
Fuchs, V.E. 1947 The volcanics of East Africa and pluvial periods Fuchs, V.E. Peterson, T.T. The Relation of Volcanicity and Orogeny to Climatic Change Geology Magazine Vol. 84 321 333 Google Scholar
Hollin, J.T. 1965 Wilson's theory of ice ages Nature 208 12 16 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollin, J.T. 1969 Ice-sheet surges and the geological record Canadian Journal of Earth Science 2 4 903 910 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollin, J.T. 1970 Antarctic ice surges Antarctic Journal of the United States 2 5 17 Google Scholar
Imbrie, J. Kipp, N.G. 1971 New method for quantitative paleoclimatology Turekian, K.K. The Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages Yale University 71 181 Google Scholar
Johnsen, S.J. Dansgaard, W. Clausen, H.B. Langway, C.C. 1972 Oxygen isotope profiles through the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets Nature 235 429 434 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennett, J.P. Huddlestun, P. 1972 Late Pleistocene paleoclimatology, foraminiferal biostratigraphy and tephrochronology, western Gulf of Mexico Quaternary Research 2 1 38 69 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb, H.H. 1970 Volcanic dust in the atmosphere Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London 226 425 533 Ser. AGoogle Scholar
Lamb, H.H. 1971 Volcanic activity and climate Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 10 203 230 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, R.K. 1969 Tectonic implications of glacio-eustatic sea-level fluctuations Earth and Planetary Science Letters 2 459 462 Google Scholar
McIntyre, A. Ruddiman, W.F. Jantzen, R. 1972 Southward penetrations of the North Atlantic polar front: faunal and floral evidence of large-scale surface water mass movements over the last 225,000 years Deep-Sea Research 19 61 77 Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F. 1969 Planktonic foraminifera of the subtropical North Atlantic gyre Unpublished dissertation Columbia University 291 Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F. Heezen, B.C. 1967 Differential solution of planktonic foraminifera Deep-Sea Research 14 801 808 Google Scholar
Wilson, A.T. 1964 Origin of ice ages: an ice shelf theory for Pleistocene glaciation Nature 201 147 149 CrossRefGoogle Scholar