Evolution of Sea Surface Temperature in the Southern Mid-latitudes From Late Oligocene Through Early Miocene

Abstract

Large Antarctic ice volume changes characterized the middle to Late Oligocene and the first million years of climate evolution during the Miocene. However, the sea surface temperature (SST) evolution over this period remains poorly constrained, as only a few records from contrasting proxies are available. In this study, we present a long-term alkenone-derived SST record from sediments drilled by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) at Site 1168 in the west Tasmanian Sea spanning 29.8 Ma to 16.7 Ma. The SST record highlight that the long-term warming in the Late Oligocene linked to the end of the Middle Oligocene Glacial Interval can be recognized also at mid-to-high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Warmer average temperatures (25.5°C) characterize the period from 24.6 to 22 Ma; average temperatures then decrease by 1°C–2°C into the Miocene and stabilize by 20.1 Ma. The reconstructed temperatures are highly variable in the warm Late Oligocene waters, and more stable and slightly colder in the Early to Middle Miocene. We confirm that this temperature trend is not an artifact of the latitudinal drift of the site, as the temperature anomaly relative to the modern water temperature at the paleolocation confirms the SST trends of the Oligocene. This is the first alkenone-derived continuous record to reproduce the long-term Oligocene climate trend previously interpreted from the benthic δ18O, which recorded a warming and/or reduction in ice volume from the Middle Oligocene Glacial Interval through the latest Oligocene.