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Assessing the Global Meltwater Spike1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Glenn A. Jones and
William F. Ruddiman
Glenn A. Jones
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964Department of Geological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027
William F. Ruddiman
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964
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Abstract

L. V. Worthington (1968, Meteorological Monographs 8, 63–67) hypothesized that a low-salinity lid covered the entire world ocean. By deconvolving isotopic curves from the western equatorial Pacific and equatorial Atlantic, W. H. Berger, R. F. Johnson, and J. S. Killingley (1977), Nature (London) 269, 661–663) and W. H. Berger (1978, Deep-Sea Research 25, 473–480) reconstructed “meltwater spikes” similar to those actually observed in the Gulf of Mexico and thus apparently confirmed the Worthington hypothesis. It is shown that this conclusion is unwarranted. The primary flaw in the reconstructed meltwater spikes is that the mixing intensity used in the deconvolution operation is overestimated. As a result, structure recorded in the mixed isotopic record becomes exaggerated in the attempt to restore the original unmixed record. This structure can be attributed to variable ice-volume decay during deglaciation, effects of differential solution on planktonic foraminifera, temporal changes in abundance of the foraminifera carrying the isotopic signal, and analytical error. An alternative geographic view to the global low-salinity lid is offered: a map showing portions of the ocean potentially affected by increased deglacial meltwater at middle and high latitudes and by increased precipitation-induced runoff at low and middle latitudes.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , March 1982, pp. 148 - 172
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1

L-DGO Contribution No. 3269.

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