title: Thermohaline circulation crisis and impacts during the mid-Pleistocene transition.
abstract: The mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT) marked a fundamental change in glacial-interglacial periodicity, when it increased from ~41-thousand-year to 100-thousand-year cycles and developed higher-amplitude climate variability without substantial changes in the Milankovitch forcing. Here, we document, by using Nd isotopes, a major disruption of the ocean thermohaline circulation (THC) system during the MPT between marine isotope stages (MISs) 25 and 21 at ~950 to 860 thousand years ago, which effectively marks the first 100-thousand-year cycle, including an exceptional weakening through a critical interglacial (MIS 23) at ~900 thousand years ago. Its recovery into the post-MPT 100-thousand-year world is characterized by continued weak glacial THC. The MPT ocean circulation crisis facilitated the coeval drawdown of atmospheric CO2 and high-latitude ice sheet growth, generating the conditions that stabilized 100-thousand-year cycles.
authors: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. leopoldo@ldeo.columbia.edu.
authors: Leopoldo D
authors: LD
authors: Pena
authors: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
authors: Steven L
authors: SL
authors: Goldstein
mesh_terms: D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D001272:Atmosphere / Q000737:chemistry; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D002980:Climate; D046448:Ice Cover; D007554:Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D009354:Neodymium / Q000032:analysis; D012623:Seawater; D058438:Water Cycle
chemical_list: D007554:Isotopes; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D009354:Neodymium