In:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 105, No. 42 ( 2008-10-21), p. 16065-16070
Abstract:
India's northward flight and collision with Asia was a major driver of global tectonics in the Cenozoic and, we argue, of atmospheric CO 2 concentration ( p CO 2 ) and thus global climate. Subduction of Tethyan oceanic crust with a carpet of carbonate-rich pelagic sediments deposited during transit beneath the high-productivity equatorial belt resulted in a component flux of CO 2 delivery to the atmosphere capable to maintain high p CO 2 levels and warm climate conditions until the decarbonation factory shut down with the collision of Greater India with Asia at the Early Eocene climatic optimum at ≈50 Ma. At about this time, the India continent and the highly weatherable Deccan Traps drifted into the equatorial humid belt where uptake of CO 2 by efficient silicate weathering further perturbed the delicate equilibrium between CO 2 input to and removal from the atmosphere toward progressively lower p CO 2 levels, thus marking the onset of a cooling trend over the Middle and Late Eocene that some suggest triggered the rapid expansion of Antarctic ice sheets at around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0027-8424
,
1091-6490
DOI:
10.1073/pnas.0805382105
Language:
English
Publisher:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publication Date:
2008
detail.hit.zdb_id:
209104-5
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1461794-8
SSG:
11
SSG:
12
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