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Changes in North Atlantic circulation at the end of the Cretaceous greenhouse interval

Nature Geoscience volume 4, pages 779–782 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

The mechanics of ocean circulation during the Late Cretaceous greenhouse interval remain contested1,2,3,4,5,6, with the role of North Atlantic Deep Water in ocean circulation particularly debated: the relative warming of the North Atlantic during the termination of the greenhouse interval has been attributed to heat piracy from North Atlantic Deep Water formation5,6, but the sources of Cretaceous deep water have been difficult to resolve. Nd isotopes as captured by seafloor sediments and expressed as ɛNd(t) reflect the region in which the water mass was formed. Here we present ɛNd(t) measurements from Cretaceous- to Palaeogene-aged sediments from four cores in the tropical North Atlantic. Before 69 Myr ago, we find extremely low ɛNd(t) values of about −16, consistent with the presence of a warm, saline deep water mass formed in the low latitudes7,8. By 62 Myr ago, ɛNd(t) values had risen to −11, similar to values reported from the northern North Atlantic over the past 65 million years, but lower than most contemporaneous values in the South Atlantic9 and Pacific oceans7,10. We therefore suggest that the ɛNd(t) shift reflects the increasing influence of a northern-sourced water mass at this site, indicating the onset or intensification of deep- or intermediate-water formation in the North Atlantic 69 Myr ago. Our findings support the heat piracy model and imply that circulation patterns during the greenhouse interval were different from those of the subsequent relatively temperate interval.

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Figure 1: Location and bathymetry of study sites on Demerara Rise off the northeast coast of South America.
Figure 2: Plot of ɛNd(t) values versus age for the late Campanian–early Eocene (∼75–∼55 Myr ago) at the four study sites.
Figure 3: Late Cretaceous temperature and ɛNd records and a schematic of Atlantic circulation patterns that could lead to heat piracy.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Huber for a constructive review and discussions and G. Kamenov for assistance with Nd isotopic analyses. Samples were provided by the ODP. ODP was sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and participating countries under management of Joint Oceanographic Institutions. Financial support was provided by NSF OCE-0648237 to E.E.M. and K.G.M.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA

    K. G. MacLeod & C. Isaza Londoño

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA

    E. E. Martin & C. Basak

  3. School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

    Á. Jiménez Berrocoso

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  1. K. G. MacLeod
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Contributions

C.I.L. and K.G.M. did most of the sample picking; E.E.M. and C.B. carried out Nd isotopic measurements; K.G.M., C.I.L., E.E.M. and A.J.B. collaborated on writing the manuscript; all authors participated in interpreting results.

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Correspondence to K. G. MacLeod.

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MacLeod, K., Isaza Londoño, C., Martin, E. et al. Changes in North Atlantic circulation at the end of the Cretaceous greenhouse interval. Nature Geosci 4, 779–782 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1284

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