An astronomically dated record of Earth’s climate and its predictability over the last 66 million years

Westerhold, Thomas and Marwan, Norbert and Drury, Anna Joy and Liebrand, Diederik and Agnini, Claudia and Anagnostou, Eleni and Barnet, James S. K. and Bohaty, Steven M. and De Vleeschouwer, David and Florindo, Fabio and Frederichs, Thomas and Hodell, David A. and Holbourn, Ann E. and Kroon, Dick and Lauretano, Vittoria and Littler, Kate and Lourens, Lucas J. and Lyle, Mitchell and Pälike, Heiko and Röhl, Ursula and Tian, Jun and Wilkens, Roy H. and Wilson, Paul A. and Zachos, James C. (2020) An astronomically dated record of Earth’s climate and its predictability over the last 66 million years. Science, 369 (6509). pp. 1383-1387. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online) DOI https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba6853

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Abstract

Much of our understanding of Earth’s past climate comes from the measurement of oxygen and carbon isotope variations in deep-sea benthic foraminifera. Yet, long intervals in existing records lack the temporal resolution and age control needed to thoroughly categorize climate states of the Cenozoic era and to study their dynamics. Here, we present a new, highly resolved, astronomically dated, continuous composite of benthic foraminifer isotope records developed in our laboratories. Four climate states—Hothouse, Warmhouse, Coolhouse, Icehouse—are identified on the basis of their distinctive response to astronomical forcing depending on greenhouse gas concentrations and polar ice sheet volume. Statistical analysis of the nonlinear behavior encoded in our record reveals the key role that polar ice volume plays in the predictability of Cenozoic climate dynamics

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	2020AREP; IA76
Subjects:	01 - Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems
Divisions:	01 - Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems
Journal or Publication Title:	Science
Volume:	369
Page Range:	pp. 1383-1387
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba6853
Depositing User:	Sarah Humbert
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2020 21:26
Last Modified:	24 Sep 2020 21:26
URI:	http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/4882

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