Ocean Circulation and Climate: Chapter 2. Paleoclimatic Ocean Circulation and Sea-Level Changes, Edition 2

Stefan Rahmstorf · Georg Feulner

oct 2013 · International Geophysics Libro 103 · Elsevier Inc. Chapters

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The oceans play a crucial role in the Earth’s climate system due largely to their ability to store and transport heat. The instrumental record, spanning an order of magnitude of 100 years, is short compared with some of the important timescales of climate variability. To understand the oceans’ role in these long-term changes, proxy data from sediments, ice cores, and corals must be used. Using these proxy data, we examine the evidence for past ocean circulation and sea-level changes before instrumental oceanographic measurements began. We discuss what paleoclimatic data can tell us about past ocean states and what can be learned from ocean and climate models. Particular foci of the chapter are the ocean circulation and sea-level changes during the Quaternary and the Cretaceous, two particularly interesting periods in Earth’s history. The Quaternary covers the past 2.5 million years and is characterized by periodic glaciations, while the Cretaceous, reaching back around 100 million years, had a warm greenhouse climate with a weak temperature gradient between the tropics and the poles.