Onset of strong Iceland-Scotland overflow water 3.6 million years ago

North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), the return flow component of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is a major inter-hemispheric ocean water mass with strong climate effects but the evolution of its source components on million-year timescales is poorly known. Today, two major NADW components that flow southward over volcanic ridges to the east and west of Iceland are associated with distinct contourite drift systems that are forming off the coast of Greenland and on the eastern flank of the Reykjanes (mid-Atlantic) Ridge. Here we provide direct records of the early history of this drift sedimentation based on cores collected during International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) Expeditions 395C and 395. We find rapid acceleration of drift deposition linked to the eastern component of NADW, known as Iceland-Scotland Overflow Water at 3.6 million years ago (Ma). In contrast, the Denmark Strait Overflow Water feeding the western Eirik Drift has been persistent since the Late Miocene. These observations constrain the long-term evolution of the two NADW components, revealing their contrasting independent histories and allowing their links with climatic events such as Northern Hemisphere cooling at 3.6 Ma, to be assessed.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2025-05-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59265-5
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
3.90

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article

Onset of strong Iceland-Scotland overflow water 3.6 million years ago

Melody R. Lindsay, Justin P. Dodd, Emma Hanson, Yair Rosenthal et al.
3 citations
Nature Communications
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
3.90
article

Onset of strong Iceland-Scotland overflow water 3.6 million years ago

Melody R. Lindsay, Justin P. Dodd, Emma Hanson, Yair Rosenthal, Tom Dunkley Jones, Deborah E. Eason, S. Lee, Paul N. Pearson, Anita Di Chiara, S. Satolli, Ying Cui, H. Ibrahim, Suzanne O’Connell, C. Jasper, A. Briais, Alexandra Yang Yang, Bramley J. Murton, Ross Parnell‐Turner, Gabriel Pasquet, Sevasti Modestou, Shuai Qian, D.E. LeBlanc, Bridget S. Wade, Katharina Hochmuth, Leah J. LeVay, Matthias Sinnesael, Boris Theofanis Karatsolis, Sidney R. Hemming, Nicholas John White, Tao Wu, David D. McNamara, Takuma Suzuki, Margaret Morris, S.A. Friedman, D. J. Dwyer, Thena Thulasi
article en
3 citations

Abstract

North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), the return flow component of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is a major inter-hemispheric ocean water mass with strong climate effects but the evolution of its source components on million-year timescales is poorly known. Today, two major NADW components that flow southward over volcanic ridges to the east and west of Iceland are associated with distinct contourite drift systems that are forming off the coast of Greenland and on the eastern flank of the Reykjanes (mid-Atlantic) Ridge. Here we provide direct records of the early history of this drift sedimentation based on cores collected during International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) Expeditions 395C and 395. We find rapid acceleration of drift deposition linked to the eastern component of NADW, known as Iceland-Scotland Overflow Water at 3.6 million years ago (Ma). In contrast, the Denmark Strait Overflow Water feeding the western Eirik Drift has been persistent since the Late Miocene. These observations constrain the long-term evolution of the two NADW components, revealing their contrasting independent histories and allowing their links with climatic events such as Northern Hemisphere cooling at 3.6 Ma, to be assessed.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 16(1)
Wesleyan University (US), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US), Northern Illinois University (US), Boston College (US), National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (IN), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US), Uppsala University (SE), Binghamton University (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Tasmania (AU), Oregon State University (US), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JP), Australian Antarctic Division (AU), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE), Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (FR), University of Liverpool (GB), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US), Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (US), University of Leicester (GB), Montclair State University (US), National Oceanography Centre (GB), Trinity College Dublin (IE), University of Cambridge (GB), Observatoire de Paris (FR), Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (US), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (IT), Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (CN), Zhejiang Ocean University (CN), Northumbria University (GB), University of California San Diego (US), University of Chieti-Pescara (IT), Georgia Southern University (US), Discovery Place (US), Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (CN), Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (FR), University College London (GB), The University of Tokyo (JP), Zhejiang University (CN), Columbia University (US), University of Birmingham (GB)
National Science Foundation, European Commission, Natural Environment Research Council
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Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
3.90
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