zaangalewa
Gold Member
- Jan 24, 2015
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The idea of Gulf Stream slowdowns as a mechanism in climate change is not merely theoretical. There is actually evidence from the study of ocean sediments that deepwater formation in the north Atlantic was diminished during the sudden cold Heinrich events and other colder phases of the last 130,000 years, including the Younger Dryas phase (e.g., Fairbanks, 1989; Kennett, 1990; Maslin, 199x). The same appears to have been true further back in time to 1.5 Myr ago (Raymo et al. 1998). The process also 'switched on' rapidly at times when climates suddenly warmed around the north Atlantic Basin, such as at the beginning of interstadials or the beginning of the present interglacial (Ramussen et al. 1997). Decreasing deep water formation occurred at times when the climate was cooling towards the end of an interstadial, and it diminished suddenly with the final cooling event that marked the end of the interstadial (Ramussen et al., 1997), and over a period of less than 300 years at the beginning of the Younger Dryas (e.g., Berger and Jansen, 1995)
no commentThese are words from technical papers written by subject matter experts. They are not my words.