Earth rotation, ocean circulation and paleoclimate

Abstract

During the 20 Ka glaciation maximum Earth's rate of rotation was significantly faster. The subsequent glacial eustatic rise in sea level meant an increase of the equatorial radius and hence led to a general deceleration in the Earth's rate of rotation. At about 6000 BP the glacial eustatic rise in sea level finished and a new situation began which was characterized by feedback interchanges of angular momentum between the solid Earth and the hydrosphere. There is a strong linkage between Earth's rate of rotation — total as well as differential — and the changes in ocean surface circulation. The ocean circulation changes are, in their turn, strongly linked to the paleoclimatic evolution of the boardering land masses. This is due to the high heat-storing capacity of the oceans, the ocean/ atmosphere heat flux, and the ocean/land interaction via heat transport by the winds. Consequently, we see a causal connection between Earth's rotation, oceanic circulation, ocean/atmosphere heating, atmospheric (wind) heat transport and continental paleoclimatic changes. We propose that the paleoclimatic changes on the decadal to millennial time scale are primarily driven by this mechanism. Observational data of changes in ocean water masses and paleoclimate are presented for the 20 Ka situation, for the high-amplitude changes 13-10 Ka ago, for the decadal-to-century changes during the Holocene, for the last centuries' instrumental data and for the ENSO-events. This implies that the oceanic system (the ocean surface circulation system) has a much more important role than previously appreciated.