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Glacial onset predated Late Ordovician climate cooling

(2016) PALEOCEANOGRAPHY. 31(6). p.800-821
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Abstract
The Ordovician glaciation represents the acme of one of only three major icehouse periods in Earth's Phanerozoic history and is notorious for setting the scene for one of the big five mass extinction events. Nevertheless, the mechanisms that drove ice sheet growth remain poorly understood and the final extent of the ice sheet crudely constrained. Here using an Earth system model with an innovative coupling method between ocean, atmosphere, and land ice accounting for climate and ice sheet feedback processes, we report simulations portraying for the first time the detailed evolution of the Ordovician ice sheet. We show that the emergence of the ice sheet happened in two discrete phases. In a counterintuitive sequence of events, the continental ice sheet appeared suddenly in a warm climate. Only during the second act, and set against a background of decreasing atmospheric CO2, followed steeply dropping temperatures and extending sea ice. The comparison with abundant sedimentological, geochemical, and micropaleontological data suggests that glacial onset may have occurred as early as the Middle Ordovician Darriwilian, in agreement with recent studies reporting third-order glacioeustatic cycles during the same period. The second step in ice sheet growth, typified by a sudden drop in tropical sea surface temperatures by approximate to 8 degrees C and the further extension of a single, continental-scale ice sheet over Gondwana, marked the onset of the Hirnantian glacial maximum. By suggesting the presence of an ice sheet over Gondwana throughout most of the Middle and Late Ordovician, our models embrace the emerging paradigm of an early Paleozoic Ice Age.
Keywords
Ordovician glaciation, Earth system model, pCO2, ANTARCTIC ICE-SHEET, ATMOSPHERIC CARBON-DIOXIDE, EARLY SILURIAN GLACIATION, SEA-LEVEL RISE, LAND PLANTS, CO2 LEVELS, MODEL, CYCLE, PALEOGEOGRAPHY, PERIOD

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MLA
Pohl, Alexandre, et al. “Glacial Onset Predated Late Ordovician Climate Cooling.” PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, vol. 31, no. 6, 2016, pp. 800–21, doi:10.1002/2016PA002928.
APA
Pohl, A., Donnadieu, Y., Le Hir, G., Ladant, J.-B., Dumas, C., Alvarez-Solas, J., & Vandenbroucke, T. (2016). Glacial onset predated Late Ordovician climate cooling. PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, 31(6), 800–821. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016PA002928
Chicago author-date
Pohl, Alexandre, Yannick Donnadieu, Guillaume Le Hir, Jean-Baptiste Ladant, Christophe Dumas, Jorge Alvarez-Solas, and Thijs Vandenbroucke. 2016. “Glacial Onset Predated Late Ordovician Climate Cooling.” PALEOCEANOGRAPHY 31 (6): 800–821. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016PA002928.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Pohl, Alexandre, Yannick Donnadieu, Guillaume Le Hir, Jean-Baptiste Ladant, Christophe Dumas, Jorge Alvarez-Solas, and Thijs Vandenbroucke. 2016. “Glacial Onset Predated Late Ordovician Climate Cooling.” PALEOCEANOGRAPHY 31 (6): 800–821. doi:10.1002/2016PA002928.
Vancouver
1.
Pohl A, Donnadieu Y, Le Hir G, Ladant J-B, Dumas C, Alvarez-Solas J, et al. Glacial onset predated Late Ordovician climate cooling. PALEOCEANOGRAPHY. 2016;31(6):800–21.
IEEE
[1]
A. Pohl et al., “Glacial onset predated Late Ordovician climate cooling,” PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 800–821, 2016.
@article{8057556,
  abstract     = {{The Ordovician glaciation represents the acme of one of only three major icehouse periods in Earth's Phanerozoic history and is notorious for setting the scene for one of the big five mass extinction events. Nevertheless, the mechanisms that drove ice sheet growth remain poorly understood and the final extent of the ice sheet crudely constrained. Here using an Earth system model with an innovative coupling method between ocean, atmosphere, and land ice accounting for climate and ice sheet feedback processes, we report simulations portraying for the first time the detailed evolution of the Ordovician ice sheet. We show that the emergence of the ice sheet happened in two discrete phases. In a counterintuitive sequence of events, the continental ice sheet appeared suddenly in a warm climate. Only during the second act, and set against a background of decreasing atmospheric CO2, followed steeply dropping temperatures and extending sea ice. The comparison with abundant sedimentological, geochemical, and micropaleontological data suggests that glacial onset may have occurred as early as the Middle Ordovician Darriwilian, in agreement with recent studies reporting third-order glacioeustatic cycles during the same period. The second step in ice sheet growth, typified by a sudden drop in tropical sea surface temperatures by approximate to 8 degrees C and the further extension of a single, continental-scale ice sheet over Gondwana, marked the onset of the Hirnantian glacial maximum. By suggesting the presence of an ice sheet over Gondwana throughout most of the Middle and Late Ordovician, our models embrace the emerging paradigm of an early Paleozoic Ice Age.}},
  author       = {{Pohl, Alexandre and Donnadieu, Yannick and Le Hir, Guillaume and Ladant, Jean-Baptiste and Dumas, Christophe and Alvarez-Solas, Jorge and Vandenbroucke, Thijs}},
  issn         = {{0883-8305}},
  journal      = {{PALEOCEANOGRAPHY}},
  keywords     = {{Ordovician glaciation,Earth system model,pCO2,ANTARCTIC ICE-SHEET,ATMOSPHERIC CARBON-DIOXIDE,EARLY SILURIAN GLACIATION,SEA-LEVEL RISE,LAND PLANTS,CO2 LEVELS,MODEL,CYCLE,PALEOGEOGRAPHY,PERIOD}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{800--821}},
  title        = {{Glacial onset predated Late Ordovician climate cooling}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1002/2016PA002928}},
  volume       = {{31}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}

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