Ice sheet expansion in the Cretaceous greenhouse world

Tianyang Wang; Songlin He; Qinghai Zhang; Lin Ding; Alexander Farnsworth; Fulong Cai; Chao Wang; Jing Xie; Guobiao Li; Jiani Sheng; Yahui Yue

Fundamental Research (Nov 2024)

Ice sheet expansion in the Cretaceous greenhouse world

Tianyang Wang,
Songlin He,
Qinghai Zhang,
Lin Ding,
Alexander Farnsworth,
Fulong Cai,
Chao Wang,
Jing Xie,
Guobiao Li,
Jiani Sheng,
Yahui Yue

Affiliations

Tianyang Wang: State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Corresponding authors.
Songlin He: State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Qinghai Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Corresponding authors.
Lin Ding: State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Corresponding authors.
Alexander Farnsworth: State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; School of Geographical Sciences and Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK
Fulong Cai: State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Chao Wang: State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Jing Xie: State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Guobiao Li: School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
Jiani Sheng: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
Yahui Yue: State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 4, no. 6
pp. 1586 – 1593

Abstract

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Globally elevated temperatures during the Cretaceous extreme greenhouse climate interval were punctuated by the Valanginian cooling event, which was characterized by a positive carbon isotope excursion, global cooling, and a glacial event approximately at 135 Ma. Disentangling ocean temperature and continental ice volume trends enables us to better understand climate fluctuations over deep time. We investigated the ocean temperature–ice sheet dynamics of glaciation events that occurred in the Cretaceous greenhouse world. New clumped isotope and δ18O data from sites in the Tethyan Ocean show that seawater temperatures decreased by 5–6 °C, consistent with the development of glacial periods, and maximum ice volumes about half the size of present-day Antarctica. This cooling event provides a counter-example to other Mesozoic climate transitions driven by changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas contents. Our results emphasize the importance of quantitatively reconstructing continental ice volume, providing further support for exploring deep-time Earth climate dynamics.

Published in Fundamental Research

ISSN: 2667-3258 (Online)
Publisher: KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.
Country of publisher: China
LCC subjects: Science: Science (General)
Website: https://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/fundamental-research/

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