Geochemical Record of Thermohaline Flow in the Southwest Atlantic: Watermass Geometry on Orbital and Millennial Time Scales

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will address a hypothesized link between export of North Atlantic Intermediate Water to the South Atlantic and warming of South Atlantic upper waters. Model predictions indicate that during glacial intervals the reduction of NADW export should produce accumulation of upper ocean heat in the South Atlantic. The project will analyze stable isotopes and Cd/Ca in benthic foraminifera from a depth transect of cores on the Brazil margin. Emphasis will be upon the last glacial maximum, but exploratory work will also be done to determine if there is dateable evidence for rapid events during the earlier intervals (Isotope Stages 3-6).