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Origin, nature and world climate effect of Arctic Ocean ice-cover

Nature volume 300, pages 321–325 (1982)Cite this article

Abstract

During the Cenozoic, an open water Arctic Ocean changed to the modern permanently ice-covered condition. Significant world climate modification accompanied this change but the precise role of the Arctic Ocean in major Pleistocene climate events is controversial. The present ice-cover averages 3 m thickness but there are theories that during the Pleistocene it was Antarctic-like, several thousand metres thick. The time of origin of the ice-cover is placed as young as 0.7 Myr ago and as old as the middle Miocene. Any theory concerned with origin, nature and climatic response of the Arctic ice-cover must consider the ocean's sediment record.

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  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA

    David L. Clark

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  1. David L. Clark
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Clark, D. Origin, nature and world climate effect of Arctic Ocean ice-cover. Nature 300, 321–325 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/300321a0

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