Development of Latitudinal Thermal Gradients during the Oligocene: Oxygen-Isotope Evidence from the Southwest Pacific

Abstract

The late Eocene through earliest Miocene stable-isotope composition of southwest Pacific microfossils has been examined in a traverse of high-quality sedimentary sequences ranging from subantarctic (DSDP Site 277) through temperate regions (DSDP Sites 592 and 593). Changes in oxygen-isotope values, measured in benthic and planktonic foraminifers, document the Oligocene development and strengthening of latitudinal thermal zonation from water masses with broad temperature gradients during the Eocene to the steeper gradients and more distinct latitudinally distributed surface water-mass belts of the Neogene. The oxygen-isotope records can be divided into three intervals: late Eocene, early Oligocene, and middle to late Oligocene. Each interval represents a successive stage in the evolution of latitudinal thermal gradients between subantarctic and temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere. During the late Eocene, oxygen-isotope values at subantarctic Site 277 were similar to those at temperate Sites 592 and 593. The isotope values suggest that, although the inferred paleotemperatures at Site 277 are slightly cooler on average than those at the temperate sites, there is no evidence for a major thermal boundary between the regions at this time. All three sites record the well-known oxygen-isotope enrichment of ~ l‰ in both planktonic and benthic foraminifers in close association with the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. In contrast to the earliest Oligocene enrichments in the planktonic and benthic oxygen-isotope composition at Site 277, more northern Sites 592 and 593 exhibit a depletion through the early-middle Oligocene. This documents the beginning of thermal segregation as subantarctic waters cooled relative to those at temperate latitudes. During the Oligocene, this surface-water differentiation continued, as measured by planktonic δ 1 8 θ values. The oxygen-isotope records of the benthic foraminifers also began to diverge in the earliest Oligocene. The most enriched oxygen-isotope values in all records cluster in the middle Oligocene, marked by oscillating episodes of enrichments >0.5‰ occurring most prominently in the subantarctic record of Site 277. These values can be interpreted as recording either the coldest oceanic temperatures of the Paleogene and/or accumulations of Antarctic ice. After this interval, latitudinal thermal differentiation developed rapidly during the middle Oligocene, especially in the surface waters which actually warmed in temperate areas. If the enriched Oligocene oxygen-isotope values indicate that ice had accumulated, this ice must have disappeared by the early Miocene, when depleted oxygen-isotope values suggest very warm conditions. The data presented in this chapter document the progressive increase of latitudinal temperature gradients from the late Eocene through the late Oligocene. This pattern of increasing isotopic offset between latitudinally distributed southwest Pacific sites is linked to the establishment and strengthening of the Circum-Antarctic Current, previously considered to have developed during the middle to late Oligocene. The intensification of this current system progressively decoupled the warm subtropical gyres from cool polar circulation, in turn leading to increased Antarctic glaciation.