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