Understanding climate
for the benefit of society

Seminar: Synchronous tropical and polar temperature evolution in the Eocene

Ilja Kocken from Utrecht University will give a seminar talk on September 3.

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Ilja Kocken
Ilja Kocken

Abstract:

Palaeoclimate reconstructions of periods with warm climates and high

atmospheric CO2 concentrations are crucial for developing better projections of

future climate change. Deep-ocean and high-latitude palaeotemperature proxies

demonstrate that the Eocene epoch (56 to 34 million years ago) encompasses the

warmest interval of the past 66 million years, followed by cooling towards the

eventual establishment of ice caps on Antarctica. Eocene polar warmth is well

established, so the main obstacle in quantifying the evolution of key climate

parameters, such as global average temperature change and its polar

amplification, is the lack of continuous high-quality tropical temperature

reconstructions.

 

In this talk I will discuss the new continuous Eocene equatorial sea surface

temperature record that we recently published[1], based on biomarker

palaeothermometry applied to Atlantic Ocean sediments. In the study we combine

our data with existing data and compare it to a fully coupled climate model.

 

[1] Cramwinckel et al., 2018. Synchronous tropical and polar temperature

evolution in the Eocene. Nature

 

Arranged date for the seminar talk: Sep 03, 2018

Place: BCCR lecture room 4020 at 14:15