Late Cenozoic stable isotope stratigraphy and paleoceanography of DSDP sites from the east equatorial and central north Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Stable isotopic analyses of Middle Miocene to Quaternary foraminiferal calcite from east equatorial and central north Pacific DSDP cores have provided much new information on the paleoceanography of the Pacific Neogene. The history of δ 18O change in planktonic foraminifera reflects the changing isotopic composition and temperature of seawater at the time of test formation. Changes in the isotopic composition of benthonic foraminifera largely reflect changes in the volume of continental ice. Isotopic data from these cores indicates the following sequence of events related to continental glaciation: (1) A permanent Antarctic ice sheet developed late in the Middle Miocene (about 13 to 11.5 m.y. ago). (2) The Late Miocene (about 11.5 to 5 m.y. ago) is marked by significant variation in δ 18O of about 0.5‰ throughout, indicating instability of Antarctic ice cap size or bottom-water temperatures. (3) The early Pliocene (5 to about 3 m.y. ago) was a time of relative stability in ice volume and bottom-water temperature. (4) Growth of permanent Northern Hemisphere ice sheets is inferred to have begun about 3 m.y. ago. (5) The late Pliocene (3 to about 1.8 m.y. ago) is marked by one major glaciation or bottom-water cooling dated between about 2.1 to 2.3 m.y. (6) There is some evidence that the frequency of glacial-interglacial cycles increased at about 0.9 m.y. There is significant variation in δ 13C at these sites but no geochemical interpretation is offered in this paper. The most outstanding feature of δ 13C results is a permanent shift of about −0.8‰ found at about 6.5 m.y. in east equatorial and central north Pacific benthonic foraminifera. This benthonic carbon shift may form a useful marker in deep-sea cores recovering Late Miocene carbonates.