Age models, sedimentology and geochemistry from sediment cores in Drake Passage throughflow

The Drake Passage (DP) is the major geographic constriction for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and exerts a strong control on the exchange of physical, chemical, and biological properties between the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean basins. Resolving changes in the flow of circumpolar water masses through this gateway is, therefore, crucial for advancing our understanding of the Southern Ocean's role in global ocean and climate variability. Here, we reconstruct changes in DP throughflow dynamics over the past 65,000 y based on grain size and geochemical properties of sediment records from the southernmost continental margin of South America. Combined with published sediment records from the Scotia Sea, we argue for a considerable total reduction of DP transport and reveal an up to ~40% decrease in flow speed along the northernmost ACC pathway entering the DP during glacial times. Superimposed on this long-term decrease are high-amplitude, millennial-scale variations, which parallel Southern Ocean and Antarctic temperature patterns. The glacial intervals of strong weakening of the ACC entering the DP imply an enhanced export of northern ACC surface and intermediate waters into the South Pacific Gyre and reduced Pacific-Atlantic exchange through the DP ("cold water route"). We conclude that changes in DP throughflow play a critical role for the global meridional overturning circulation and interbasin exchange in the Southern Ocean, most likely regulated by variations in the westerly wind field and changes in Antarctic sea ice extent.

Age models and summer sea surface temperature and winter sea ice concentration for the EPILOG-LGM time slice in the Pacific Southern Ocean

Sea surface temperatures and sea-ice extent are the most critical variables to evaluate the Southern Ocean paleoceanographic evolution in relation to the development of the global carbon cycle, atmospheric CO2 variability and ocean-atmosphere circulation. In contrast to the Atlantic and the Indian sectors, the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean has been insufficiently investigated so far. To cover this gap of information we present diatom-based estimates of summer sea surface temperature (SSST) and winter sea-ice concentration (WSI) from 17 sites in the polar South Pacific to study the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) at the EPILOG time slice (19,000-23,000 cal. years BP). Applied statistical methods are the Imbrie and Kipp Method (IKM) and the Modern Analog Technique (MAT) to estimate temperature and sea-ice concentration, respectively. Our data display a distinct LGM east-west differentiation in SSST and WSI with steeper latitudinal temperature gradients and a winter sea-ice edge located consistently north of the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge in the Ross sea sector. In the eastern sector of our study area, which is governed by the Amundsen Abyssal Plain, the estimates yield weaker latitudinal SSST gradients together with a variable extended winter sea-ice field. In this sector, sea-ice extent may have reached sporadically the area of the present Subantarctic Front at its maximum LGM expansion. This pattern points to topographic forcing as major controller of the frontal system location and sea-ice extent in the western Pacific sector whereas atmospheric conditions like the Southern Annular Mode and the ENSO affected the oceanographic conditions in the eastern Pacific sector. Although it is difficult to depict the location and the physical nature of frontal systems separating the glacial Southern Ocean water masses into different zones, we found a distinct temperature gradient in latitudes straddled by the modern Southern Subtropical Front. Considering that the glacial temperatures north of this zone are similar to the modern, we suggest that this represents the Glacial Southern Subtropical Front (GSSTF), which delimits the zone of strongest glacial SSST cooling (>4K) to its North. The southern boundary of the zone of maximum cooling is close to the glacial 4°C isotherm. This isotherm, which is in the range of SSST at the modern Antarctic Polar Front (APF), represents a circum-Antarctic feature and marks the northern edge of the glacial Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). We also assume that a glacial front was established at the northern average winter sea ice edge, comparable with the modern Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front (SACCF). During the glacial, this front would be located in the area of the modern APF. The northward deflection of colder than modern surface waters along the South American continent leads to a significant cooling of the glacial Humboldt Current surface waters (4-8K), which affects the temperature regimes as far north as into tropical latitudes. The glacial reduction of ACC temperatures may also result in the significant cooling in the Atlantic and Indian Southern Ocean, thus may enhance thermal differentiation of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic continental cooling. Comparison with temperature and sea ice simulations for the last glacial based on numerical simulations show that the majority of modern models overestimate summer and winter sea ice cover and that there exists few models that reproduce our temperature data rather well.

Sedimentology of the Reykjanes Ridge, Southeast Greenland

Marine records from the Reykjanes Ridge indicate ice sheet variations and abrupt climate changes. One of these records, ice-rafted detritus (IRD), serves as a proxy for iceberg discharges that probably indicates ice sheet fluctuations. The IRD records suggest that iceberg discharge 68,000-10,000 yr B.P. happened more frequently than the 7000- to 10,000-yr spacing of the Heinrich events. An IRD peak 67,000 to 63,000 yr B.P. further suggests that the Middle Weichselian glaciation started about 12,000 yr earlier in the North Atlantic than in the Norwegian Sea. Several later IRD events, in contrast, correlate with Norwegian Sea IRD-rich layers and imply coeval ice sheet advances in the North Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea. Coccoliths in a core from the Reykjanes Ridge show distinct peaks in species that record occasional inflow of warm surface water during the last glaciation, as previously reported from the eastern Labrador Sea. High abundances of coccoliths, together with a decrease ofNeogloboquadrina pachydermasin. and relatively low delta18O values, imply enhanced advection of the North Atlantic Current 69,000-67,000 yr B.P., 56,000-54,000 yr B.P., 35,000-33,000 yr B.P., and 26,000-23,000 yr B.P. This advection provided a regional moisture source for extension of ice sheets onto the shelf. In contrast, most of the IRD events are characterized by cold polar surface water masses indicating rapid variations in ocean surface conditions.

(Table S1) Age determination of ODP Site 202-1240

Interannual-decadal variability in the equatorial Pacific El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) induces climate changes at global scale, but its potential influence during past global climate change is not yet well constrained. New high-resolution eastern equatorial Pacific proxy records of thermocline conditions present new evidence of strong orbital control in ENSO-like variability over the last 275,000 years. Recurrent intervals of saltier thermocline waters are associated with the dominance of La Niña-like conditions during glacial terminations, coinciding with periods of low precession and high obliquity. The parallel dominance of d13C-depleted waters supports the advection of Antarctic origin waters toward the tropical thermocline. This "oceanic tunneling" is proposed to have reinforced orbitally induced changes in ENSO-like variability, composing a complex high- and low-latitude feedback during glacial terminations.

Manganese nodules recovered by R/V Vityaz expedition

Uranium, radium, thorium and ionium were determined directly on seven concretions from three stations in the Indian Ocean, and on two concretions and a manganese-rich crust from two stations in the Pacific Ocean. The uranium content averages 3 to 5 gamma/g and the thorium content varies only slightly, but the Th/U ratio in the concretions is typically 2 to 5 in the Indian Ocean and 5 to 15.5 in the Pacific. The ionium content ranges from 1.0 x 10-9 to 3.6 10**-9 g/g in concretions from both oceans. Radium is more abundant in specimens from the Pacific Ocean (Ra = 3 - 12.7 x 10**-11 g/g) than from the Indian Ocean (1.5 - 5.2 x 10**-11 g/g). Analyses for Ca, Mn, Fe, Si, Ni, P, and ignition loss are also given. Radioactive equilibria between uranium, ionium, and radium are strongly disturbed throughout the concretions, and the RA/U and lo/U ratios generally exceed equilibrium ratios. Migration of radium from interior layers was established, so that neither determination of the ages of the concretions nor of their rates of growth can be considered reliable. The age of the concretions cannot exceed 800,000 years, and all grew within relatively short periods of time; there may have been "dormant" periods during growth. Estimates of growth rates are calculated from the radium and ionium contents; they show marked discordance.