Onset of strong Iceland-Scotland overflow water 3.6 million years ago

Onset of strong Iceland-Scotland overflow water 3.6 million years ago

Abstract North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), the return flow component of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is a major inter-hemispheric ocean water mass with strong climate effects but the evolution of its source components on million-year timescales is poorly known. Today, two...

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Main Authors: Matthias Sinnesael, Boris-Theofanis Karatsolis, Paul N. Pearson, Anne Briais, Sidney R. Hemming, Leah J. LeVay, Tom Dunkley Jones, Ying Cui, Anita Di Chiara, Justin P. Dodd, Deepa Dwyer, Deborah E. Eason, Sarah A. Friedman, Emma Hanson, Katharina Hochmuth, Halima E. Ibrahim, Claire E. Jasper, Saran Lee-Takeda, Danielle E. LeBlanc, Melody R. Lindsay, David D. McNamara, Sevasti E. Modestou, Margaret A. Morris, Bramley J. Murton, Suzanne OConnell, Gabriel Pasquet, Sheng-Ping Qian, Yair Rosenthal, Sara Satolli, Takuma Suzuki, Thena Thulasi, Bridget S. Wade, Nicholas J. White, Tao Wu, Alexandra Y. Yang, Ross E. Parnell-Turner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-05-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59265-5
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Summary:Abstract North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), the return flow component of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is a major inter-hemispheric ocean water mass with strong climate effects but the evolution of its source components on million-year timescales is poorly known. Today, two major NADW components that flow southward over volcanic ridges to the east and west of Iceland are associated with distinct contourite drift systems that are forming off the coast of Greenland and on the eastern flank of the Reykjanes (mid-Atlantic) Ridge. Here we provide direct records of the early history of this drift sedimentation based on cores collected during International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) Expeditions 395C and 395. We find rapid acceleration of drift deposition linked to the eastern component of NADW, known as Iceland–Scotland Overflow Water at 3.6 million years ago (Ma). In contrast, the Denmark Strait Overflow Water feeding the western Eirik Drift has been persistent since the Late Miocene. These observations constrain the long-term evolution of the two NADW components, revealing their contrasting independent histories and allowing their links with climatic events such as Northern Hemisphere cooling at 3.6 Ma, to be assessed.
ISSN:2041-1723

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