Abrupt intensification of North Atlantic Deep Water formation at the Nordic Seas during the late Pliocene climate transition

Abstract

AbstractKnowledge of the evolution of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) is key to understanding the past evolution of the climatic system. Here we developed a new rock‐magnetic method to determine the constituent magnetic minerals of sediments and report on the evolution of NADW during 2.2–2.9 Ma. We measured isothermal remanence acquisition curves of North Atlantic deep‐sea sediments drilled at the Gardar Drift and decomposed the first derivatives of these curves into high‐coercivity and low‐coercivity components. Residuals of the decomposition were sufficiently small throughout the study interval, confirming that the Gardar Drift sediments represent a mixing of the two end‐members. Fractional changes of the high‐coercivity component represent variation of the Iceland‐Scotland Overflow Water, a branch of NADW formed at the Nordic Seas. The high‐coercivity component increased significantly during an interglacial period just after ~2.68 Ma, which suggests that NADW formation in the Nordic Seas abruptly intensified at this time.