Does the Trigger for Abrupt Climate Change Reside in the Ocean or in the Atmosphere?

Two hypotheses have been put forward to explain the large and abrupt climate changes that punctuated glacial time. One attributes such changes to reorganizations of the ocean's thermohaline circulation and the other to changes in tropical atmosphere-ocean dynamics. In an attempt to distinguish...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2003-06, Vol.300 (5625), p.1519-1522
Main Author: Broecker, W. S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Armadas
Atmosphere
Brackish
Climate change
Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change
Cooling
Earth, ocean, space
Evidence
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Floods
Fresh water
Freshwater
Glacial epoch
Glaciers
Global temperature changes
History
Ice
Ice ages
Marine
Meteorology
Ocean-atmosphere interaction
Oceans
Radiocarbon
Review
Sediments
Telecommunications
Topography
Water
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Summary:Two hypotheses have been put forward to explain the large and abrupt climate changes that punctuated glacial time. One attributes such changes to reorganizations of the ocean's thermohaline circulation and the other to changes in tropical atmosphere-ocean dynamics. In an attempt to distinguish between these hypotheses, two lines of evidence are examined. The first involves the timing of the freshwater injections to the northern Atlantic that have been suggested as triggers for the global impacts associated with the Younger Dryas and Heinrich events. The second has to do with evidence for precursory events associated with the Heinrich ice-rafted debris layers in the northern Atlantic and with the abrupt Dansgaard-Oeschger warmings recorded in the Santa Barbara Basin.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1083797