EGU2020-12928, updated on 13 Jan 2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-12928
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Reconstructions of Global and Regional Temperature Change for the Last 5 Myr

Peter U. Clark1, Jeremy Shakun2, Yair Rosenthal3, Patrick Bartlein4, Peter Koehler5, and Hari Mix6
Peter U. Clark et al.
  • 1CEOAS, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States of America (clarkp@onid.orst.edu)
  • 2Boston College, Boston, MA, United States of America (jeremy.shakun@bc.edu)
  • 3Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America (rosentha@marine.rutgers.edu)
  • 4University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, United States of America (bartlein@uoregon.edu)
  • 5Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Bremerhaven, Germany (pkoehler@awi.de)
  • 6Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, United States of America (hmix@scu.edu)

We use a global array of ~120 sea-surface temperature (SST) records based on Mg/Ca, alkenone, and faunal proxies to reconstruct global and regional temperature change over the last 5 Myr. All records are placed on the LR04 age model. Here we report the reconstructions and discuss their implications for characterizing global climate evolution (frequency, variance, transitions) over this interval and its relationship to changes in CO2, orbital forcing, and mean ocean temperature. Average global temperature has cooled by ~6.5oC since 5 Ma, with significant breakpoints tentatively identified at ~3.38 Ma, 1.34 Ma, and 0.88 Ma. We also invert the global reconstruction to reconstruct global sea level for the last 5 Myr.

How to cite: Clark, P. U., Shakun, J., Rosenthal, Y., Bartlein, P., Koehler, P., and Mix, H.: Reconstructions of Global and Regional Temperature Change for the Last 5 Myr, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-12928, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-12928, 2020