Evidence of ‘Mid‐Pliocene (˜3 Ma) global warmth’ in the eastern Arctic Ocean and implications for the Svalbard/Barents Sea ice sheet during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene (˜3 – 1.7 Ma)

Abstract

A multiproxy analysis of Hole 911A (Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 151) drilled on the Yermak Plateau (eastern Arctic Ocean) is used to investigate the behaviour of the Svalbard/Barents Sea ice sheet (SBIS) during late Pliocene and early Pleistocene (˜3.0–1.7 Ma) climate changes. Contemporary with the ‘Mid‐Pliocene (˜3 Ma) global warmth’ (MPGW), a warmer period lasting ˜300 kyr with seasonally ice‐free conditions in the marginal eastern Arctic Ocean is assumed to be an important regional moisture source, and possibly one decisive trigger for intensification of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation in the Svalbard/Barents Sea area at ˜2.7 Ma. An abrupt pulse of ice‐rafted debris (IRD) to the Yermak Plateau at ˜2.7 Ma reflects distinct melting of sediment‐laden icebergs derived from the SBIS and may indicate the protruding advance of the ice sheet onto the outer shelf. Spectral analysis of the total organic carbon (TOC) record being predominantly of terrigenous/fossil‐reworked origin indicates SBIS and possibly Scandinavian Ice Sheet response to incoming solar radiation at obliquity and precession periodicities. The strong variance in frequencies near the 41 kyr obliquity cycle between 2.7 and 1.7 Ma indicates, for the first time in the Arctic Ocean, a close relationship of SBIS growth and decay patterns to the Earth's orbital obliquity amplitudes, which dominated global ice volume variations during late Pliocene/early Pleistocene climate changes.