Greenhouse World and the Mesozoic Ocean

An Ocean View of the Early Cenozoic Greenhouse World

Evidence for rapid climate change in the Mesozoic-Palaeogene greenhouse world.

The best-documented example of rapid climate change that characterized the so-called 'greenhouse world' took place at the time of the Palaeocene-Eocene boundary: introduction of isotopically light carbon into the ocean-atmosphere system, accompanied by global warming of 5-8 degrees C across a range of latitudes, took place over a few thousand years. Dissociation, release and oxidation of gas hy...

A mechanism for brief glacial episodes in the Mesozoic greenhouse

[1] The Mesozoic, perhaps the longest period of warmth during the Phanerozoic Earth history, has been repeatedly affected by short‐lived cold interludes lasting about one million years. While the origin of these cold snaps has been classically attributed to a temporary atmospheric CO2 drawdown, quantified mechanisms explaining these instabilities of the carbon cycle are still lacking. Based on ...

Paleoceanography: the Greenhouse World

Understanding and modeling a world very different from that of today, for example, a much warmer world with a so-called ‘greenhouse’ climate, requires a thorough grasp of such processes as the carbon cycle, ocean circulation, and heat transport in the oceans – indeed it pushes the limits of our current conceptual and numerical models. A review of what we know of past greenhouse worlds reveals t...

Nd Isotopic Structure of the Pacific Ocean 70-30 and Numerical Evidence for Vigorous Ocean Circulation and Ocean Heat Transport in a Greenhouse World

The oceanic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) is a crucial component of the climate system, impacting heat and nutrient transport, and global carbon cycling. Past greenhouse climate intervals present a paradox because their weak equator-to-pole temperature gradients imply a weaker MOC, yet increased poleward oceanic heat transport appears to be required to maintain these weak gradients. ...