Department of Geosciences Environmental Studies Laboratory : Research

 

Atlantic Variability


Overview

Seasonal- to millennial-scale variability in the North Atlantic exerts strong influences on climate over much of the globe, particularly in regions adjacent to and down-wind from the North Atlantic. Some of this variability is tightly tied to changes in the high latitude North Atlantic and global thermohaline circulation, while other variability relates more to changes in the tropical North Atlantic. Activities in the laboratory focus on both of these areas and how they influence climate both inside and outside of the circum-Atlantic region. We have a long-term effort underway to reconstruct and examine interannual and century-scale variability in the Labrador Sea in order to determine how this variability affects regional climate in the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, and North Atlantic. We also have current studies in both the eastern and western tropical Atlantic that are revealing a great deal about the nature of Atlantic variability on decadal to millennial time scales and its relationship to drought in North America and northern Africa.

With the publishing of a Nature paper in 1989 and subsequent paleoceanographic cruise, we, along with Larry “Bubba” Peterson at the University of Miami, began what has become a successful, more than a decade long investigation of the Cariaco Basin. Dozens of papers from laboratories around the world have resulted in making the Cariaco Basin one of the best known paleoenvironmental sites in the world.


Related Research Focus Links

Abrupt Climate Change
Arctic System Variability
Geochronology
Northern African Climate Dynamics

Tropical Pacific Variability


Present and Recent Collaborators

D. Black, J. Cole, M. Evans, K. Hughen, S. Lehman, L. Peterson, J. Southon, T. Shanahan


Funding Agencies

National Science Foundation National Science Foundation


References

Koeberl, C., B. Milkereit, J.T. Overpeck, C.A. Scholz, P.Y.O. Amoako, D. Boamah, S. Danuor, T. Karp, J. Kueck, R.E. Hecky, J.W. King, and J.A. Peck. 2007. An international and multidisciplinary drilling project into a young complex impact structure: The 2004 ICDP Bosumtwi Crater Drilling Project - An overview. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 42: 483-511.

abstract | request reprint (3,206 KB)

Hughen, K.A., J.R. Southon, S.J. Lehman, and J.T. Overpeck. 2000. Synchronous radiocarbon and climate shifts during the last deglaciation. Science 290: 1951-1954.

abstract | request reprint (450 KB)

Black, D.E., L.C. Peterson, J.T. Overpeck, A. Kaplan, M. Evans, and M. Kashgarian. 1999. Eight centuries of North Atlantic Ocean variability. Science 286: 1709-1713.

abstract | request reprint (448 KB)

Hughen, K.A., J. Southon, L.C. Peterson, R. Alley, D.M. Sigman, J.T. Overpeck, S.J. Lehman, and M. Kashgarian. 1998. Deglacial changes in ocean circulation from an extended radiocarbon calibration. Nature 391: 65-68.

abstract | request reprint (302 KB)

Lin, H-l., L.C. Peterson, J.T. Overpeck, S. Trumbore, and D.W. Murray. 1997. Late Quaternary climate change from delta O-18 records of multiple species of planktonic foraminifera: High-resolution records from the anoxic Cariaco Basin, Venezuela. Paleoceanography 12: 415-427.

abstract | request reprint (1,598 KB)

Hughen, K.A., J.T. Overpeck, L.C. Peterson, and R.F. Anderson. 1996. The nature of varved sedimentation in the Cariaco Basin, Venezuela, and its palaeoclimatic significance. In: Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoceanography from Laminated Sediments, A. Kemp, ed., Special Publications of the Geological Society of London, No. 116, pp. 171-183.

abstract | request reprint (6,318 KB)

Hughen, K.A., J.T. Overpeck, L.C. Peterson, and S. Trumbore. 1996. Rapid climate changes in the tropical Atlantic region during the last deglaciation. Nature 380: 51-54.

abstract | request reprint (398 KB)

Peterson, L.C., J.T. Overpeck, N. Kipp, and J. Imbrie. 1991. A high-resolution late-Quaternary upwelling record from the anoxic Cariaco Basin, Venezuela. Paleoceanography 6: 99-119.

abstract | request reprint (2,182 KB)

Overpeck, J.T., L.C. Peterson, N. Kipp, J. Imbrie, and D. Rind. 1989. Climate change in the circum-North Atlantic region during the last deglaciation. Nature 338: 553-557.

abstract | request reprint (806 KB)

Mailing Address
1040 E. Fourth St.
Department of Geosciences
University of Arizona
Gould-Simpson Room 208
Tucson, AZ 85721-0077

Telephone Number
1.520.621.8025

Facsimile Number
1.520.621.2672

 

 

Crew of Cariaco Basin Study
Cariaco Basin Studies


Ocean Sunset
Perks of the Job



Cariaco Basin Sediments and Climate System Dynamics



Cariaco Basin Sediments and Tropical Atlantic Variability

 

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Environmental Studies Laboratory, Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona
All contents © 2003 Arizona Board of Regents
Send comments or questions to Jeremy Weiss, jlweiss@email.arizona.edu

Earth image retreived from http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Unique/ on 14 January 2003

Last updated January 8, 2008
Document located at http://www.geo.arizona.edu/dgesl/research/regional/atlantic_variability/atlantic_variability.htm

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