PP21B-2250
Investigating Tectonic Drivers of Miocene - Pliocene Polar Climate Evolution using the HadCM3 Climate Model.
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Stephen J Hunter, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, Jochen Knies, University of Bordeaux 1, Talence, France, Alan M Haywood, University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds, United Kingdom, Aisling M Dolan, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2, United Kingdom and Matthew J Pound, Northumbria University, Geography, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, United Kingdom
Abstract:
We model the climate of the Miocene (Tortonian and the Messinian) and the Pliocene (Piacenzian) using the HadCM3 Atmosphere-Ocean GCM. We use baseline Miocene and Pliocene geographies that have different reconstruction lineages so we describe methods to create a set of self-consistent paleogeographies that represent the main features of the three stages. We present large-scale features of the evolving climate and examine model fidelity by comparing modelled climatology against palaeoenvironmental proxy data. We focus on the climate of the Arctic region and investigate tectonic drivers of sea ice expansion by comparing and interpreting model predictions against borehole data from the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean. In particular how Late Miocene/ early Pliocene tectonic uplift in the Svalbard/Barents Sea and Greenland region, the opening of the Bering Strait, and the onset of deep water Atlantic-Arctic exchange influenced the development of modern sea ice cover.
