The Drake Passage opening from an experimental fluid dynamics point of view

Pronounced global cooling around the Eocene–Oligocene transition (EOT) was a pivotal event in Earth’s climate history, controversially associated with the opening of the Drake Passage. Using a physical laboratory model we revisit the fluid dynamics of this marked reorganization of ocean circulation....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2021-10, Vol.11 (1), p.19951-19951, Article 19951
Main Authors: Vincze, Miklós, Bozóki, Tamás, Herein, Mátyás, Borcia, Ion Dan, Harlander, Uwe, Horicsányi, Attila, Nyerges, Anita, Rodda, Costanza, Pál, András, Pálfy, József
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/766/189
704/106
704/106/2738
704/106/829/2737
704/829
Albedo
Climate models
Cooling
Eocene
Fluid dynamics
Global climate
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrodynamics
Laboratories
multidisciplinary
Ocean circulation
Oligocene
Paleoclimate
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sea ice
Sea surface temperature
Water circulation
Water temperature
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Pronounced global cooling around the Eocene–Oligocene transition (EOT) was a pivotal event in Earth’s climate history, controversially associated with the opening of the Drake Passage. Using a physical laboratory model we revisit the fluid dynamics of this marked reorganization of ocean circulation. Here we show, seemingly contradicting paleoclimate records, that in our experiments opening the pathway yields higher values of mean water surface temperature than the “closed” configuration. This mismatch points to the importance of the role ice albedo feedback plays in the investigated EOT-like transition, a component that is not captured in the laboratory model. Our conclusion is supported by numerical simulations performed in a global climate model (GCM) of intermediate complexity, where both “closed” and “open” configurations were explored, with and without active sea ice dynamics. The GCM results indicate that sea surface temperatures would change in the opposite direction following an opening event in the two sea ice dynamics settings, and the results are therefore consistent both with the laboratory experiment (slight warming after opening) and the paleoclimatic data (pronounced cooling after opening). It follows that in the hypothetical case of an initially ice-free Antarctica the continent could have become even warmer after the opening, a scenario not indicated by paleotemperature reconstructions.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-99123-0