Abstract
The processes causing the middle Miocene global cooling, which marked the Earth's final transition into an ‘icehouse’ climate about 13.9 million years ago (Myr ago)1,2,3,4, remain enigmatic. Tectonically driven circulation changes5,6 and variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels7,8 have been suggested as driving mechanisms, but the lack of adequately preserved sedimentary successions has made rigorous testing of these hypotheses difficult. Here we present high-resolution climate proxy records, covering the period from 14.7 to 12.7 million years ago, from two complete sediment cores from the northwest and southeast subtropical Pacific Ocean. Using new chronologies through the correlation to the latest orbital model9, we find relatively constant, low summer insolation over Antarctica coincident with declining atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at the time of Antarctic ice-sheet expansion and global cooling, suggesting a causal link. We surmise that the thermal isolation of Antarctica played a role in providing sustained long-term climatic boundary conditions propitious for ice-sheet formation. Our data document that Antarctic glaciation was rapid, taking place within two obliquity cycles, and coincided with a striking transition from obliquity to eccentricity as the drivers of climatic change.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Flower, B. P. & Kennett, J. P. Middle Miocene ocean-climate transition: high resolution oxygen and carbon isotopic records from DSDP Site 588A, southwest Pacific. Paleoceanography 8, 811–843 (1993)
Flower, B. P. & Kennett, J. P. Middle Miocene deep water paleoceanography in the southwest Pacific: Relations with East Antarctic ice sheet development. Paleoceanography 10, 1095–1112 (1995)
Miller, K. G., Wright, J. D. & Fairbanks, R. G. Unlocking the ice house: Oligocene-Miocene oxygen isotopes, eustacy and margin erosion. J. Geophys. Res. 96, 6829–6848 (1991)
Zachos, J., Pagani, M., Sloan, L., Thomas, E. & Billups, K. Trends, rhythms, and aberrations in global climate 65 Ma to present. Science 292, 686–693 (2001)
Kennett, J. P. Cenozoic evolution of Antarctic glaciation, the Circum-Antarctic Ocean and their impact on global paleoceanography. J. Geophys. Res. 82, 3843–3860 (1975)
Woodruff, F. & Savin, S. Mid-Miocene isotope stratigraphy in the deep sea: high resolution correlations, paleoclimatic cycles, and sediment preservation. Paleoceanography 6, 755–806 (1991)
Raymo, M. E. & Ruddiman, W. F. Tectonic forcing of late Cenozoic climate. Nature 359, 117–122 (1992)
Vincent, E. & Berger, W. H. in The Carbon Cycle and Atmospheric CO2: Natural Variations Archean to Present (eds Broecker, W. S. & Sundquist, E. T.) 455–468 (Geophys. Monogr. Ser. 32, AGU, Washington DC, 1985)
Laskar, J. et al. A long term numerical solution for the insolation quantities of the Earth. Astron. Astrophys. 428, 261–285 (2004)
Sugden, D. & Denton, G. Cenozoic landscape evolution of the Convoy Range to Mackay Glacier area, Transantarctic Mountains: Onshore to offshore synthesis. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 116, 840–857 (2004)
Lear, C. H., Elderfield, H. & Wilson, P. A. Cenozoic deep-sea temperature and global ice volumes from Mg/Ca in benthic foraminiferal calcite. Science 287, 269–272 (2000)
Berger, W. H. & Jansen, E. in The Polar Oceans and their Role in Shaping the Global Environment (eds Johannessen, O. M., Muench, R. D. & Overland, J. E.) 295–311 (Geophys. Monogr. Ser. 85, AGU, Washington, DC, 1994)
Mudelsee, M. & Schulz, M. The Middle Pleistocene climate transition: onset of 100 kyr cycle lags ice volume buildup by 280 ka. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 151, 117–123 (1997)
Shackleton, N. J. The 100,000-year ice-age cycle identified and found to lag temperature, carbon dioxide, and orbital eccentricity. Science 289, 1897–1902 (2000)
Imbrie, J. et al. On the structure and origin of major glaciation cycles. 2. The 100,000 years cycle. Paleoceanography 8, 699–735 (1993)
Raymo, M. E. & Nisancioglu, K. The 41 kyr world: Milankovitch's other unsolved mystery. Paleoceanography 18, 1011 doi:10.1029/2002PA00791 (2003)
Loutre, M.-F., Paillard, D., Vimeux, F. & Cortijo, E. Does mean annual insolation have the potential to change the climate? Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 221, 1–14 (2004)
Vimeux, F. et al. A 420,000 year deuterium excess record from East Antarctica: Information on past changes in the origin of precipitation at Vostok. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 31863–31873 (2001)
Hall, I. R., McCave, N., Shackleton, N. J., Weedon, G. P. & Harris, S. Intensified deep Pacific inflow and ventilation in Pleistocene glacial times. Nature 412, 809–812 (2001)
Hall, I. R. et al. Paleocurrent reconstruction of the deep Pacific inflow during the middle Miocene: Reflections of Antarctic Ice Sheet growth. Paleoceanography 18, 1040–1051 (2003)
Shevenell, A. E., Kennett, J. P. & Lea, D. W. Middle Miocene Southern Ocean cooling and Antarctic cryosphere expansion. Science 305, 1766–1770 (2004)
Kump, L. R. & Arthur, M. A. Interpreting carbon-isotope excursions: carbonate and organic matter. Chem. Geol. 161, 181–198 (1999)
Müller, P. J. & Suess, E. Productivity, sedimentation rate, and sedimentary organic matter in the oceans. 1. Organic carbon preservation. Deep-Sea Res. A 26, 1347–1362 (1979)
Jahnke, R. A. The global ocean flux of particulate organic carbon: Areal distribution and magnitude. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 10, 71–88 (1996)
Coxhall, H. K., Wilson, P. A., Pälike, H., Lear, C. H. & Backman, J. Rapid stepwise onset of Antarctic glaciation and deeper calcite compensation in the Pacific Ocean. Nature 433, 53–57 (2005)
Zachos, J., Shackleton, N. J., Revenaugh, J. S., Pälike, H. & Flower, B. P. Climate response to orbital forcing across the Oligocene-Miocene boundary. Science 292, 274–278 (2001)
Wang, P., Tian, J., Cheng, X., Liu, C. & Xu, J. Carbon reservoir changes preceded major ice-sheet expansion at the mid-Brunhes event. Geology 31, 239–242 (2003)
Pagani, M., Arthur, M. A. & Freeman, K. H. Miocene evolution of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Paleoceanography 14, 273–292 (1999)
Pearson, P. N. & Palmer, M. R. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 60 million years. Nature 406, 695–699 (2000)
Ferraz- Mello, S. Estimation of periods from unequally spaced observations. Astron. J. 86, 619–624 (1981)
Acknowledgements
We thank the Shipboard Scientific Parties of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Legs 184 and 202, J. Kennett, U. Röhl, M. Sarnthein, A. Shevenell, J. Schönfeld, J. Stoner and J. Zachos for discussions. This research used samples provided by the ODP, and was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
Data sets are archived at WDC-MARE (http://www.pangaea.de). Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Notes
Contains additional locality information, Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Data, Supplementary Figures 1–5 and Supplementary Tables 1–4. Derivation of astronomically-tuned age models for ODP Sites 1146 and 1237 and revised chronology for ODP Site 1171 are also presented. (PDF 5825 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Holbourn, A., Kuhnt, W., Schulz, M. et al. Impacts of orbital forcing and atmospheric carbon dioxide on Miocene ice-sheet expansion. Nature 438, 483–487 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04123
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04123
This article is cited by
-
Weakening of the South Asian summer monsoon linked to interhemispheric ice-sheet growth since 12 Ma
Nature Communications (2023)
-
Marine facies differentiation along complex paleotopography: an example from the Middle Miocene (Serravallian) of Lower Austria
Swiss Journal of Geosciences (2022)
-
Global warming-induced Asian hydrological climate transition across the Miocene–Pliocene boundary
Nature Communications (2021)
-
Coupled Southern Ocean cooling and Antarctic ice sheet expansion during the middle Miocene
Nature Geoscience (2020)
-
Shell weights of foraminifera trace atmospheric CO2 from the Miocene to Pleistocene in the central Equatorial Indian Ocean
Journal of Earth System Science (2020)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.