Cryosphere and East Asian monsoon variability during the latest Miocene (7-5 Ma)
Final Report Abstract
Results from this project highlight the highly dynamic behavior of the ocean-climate system, supporting a tight coupling between carbon cycle variations and climate evolution through the late Miocene. This study also provides a first high-resolution benthic isotope curve from a single site, which spans 16 Myr of Earth’s climate history and will serve as a reference curve for the Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, this work provides crucial benchmark data for current and upcoming projects of high-resolution analyses of deep water isotope and monsoonal proxy time series from the northeastern Indian Ocean and from the core of the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool (IODP Expeditions 353 and 363) with the main objective of a better understanding of the roles and interactions of high latitude and monsoonal climate systems in the middle-late Miocene stepwise global cooling.
