title: Paleoceanography. Onset of Mediterranean outflow into the North Atlantic.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK. javier.hernandez-molina@rhul.ac.uk.
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authors.affiliation: Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, Scotland, UK.
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authors.affiliation: International Ocean Discovery Program, Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77845, USA.
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authors.affiliation: EPOC, Université de Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France.
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authors.affiliation: Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Salamanca, 3008 Salamanca, Spain.
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authors.affiliation: Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biogeochemistry, JAMSTEC, 237-0061 Yokosuka, Japan.
authors.forename: Francisco
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authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, Ansan 426-744, Korea.
authors.forename: Jin Kyoung
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authors.affiliation: Institute of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands.
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authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.affiliation: École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, EPOC, Université de Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac, France.
authors.forename: Maria Fernanda
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authors.affiliation: Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Salamanca, 3008 Salamanca, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco J
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authors.lastname: Sierro
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India.
authors.forename: Arun Deo
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authors.affiliation: School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.
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authors.affiliation: Divisão de Geologia e Georecursos Marinhos, IPMA, 1749-077 Lisboa, Portugal.
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authors.affiliation: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
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mesh_terms: D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D057231:Climate Change; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D010163:Paleontology; D012623:Seawater; D014872:Water Movements