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Science 11 June 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5677, pp. 1659 - 1662
DOI: 10.1126/science.1093726
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Reports

New Zealand Maritime Glaciation: Millennial-Scale Southern Climate Change Since 3.9 Ma

Robert M. Carter* and Paul Gammon

Ocean Drilling Program Site 1119 is ideally located to intercept discharges of sediment from the mid-latitude glaciers of the New Zealand Southern Alps. The natural gamma ray signal from the site's sediment core contains a history of the South Island mountain ice cap since 3.9 million years ago (Ma). The younger record, to 0.37 Ma, resembles the climatic history of Antarctica as manifested by the Vostok ice core. Beyond, and back to the late Pliocene, the record may serve as a proxy for both mid-latitude and Antarctic polar plateau air temperature. The gamma ray signal, which is atmospheric, also resembles the ocean climate history represented by oxygen isotope time series.

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bob.carter{at}jcu.edu.au

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The role of intermediate-depth currents in continental shelf-slope accretion: Canterbury Drifts, SW Pacific Ocean.
R. M. Carter (2007)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 276, 129-154
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New techniques in sediment core analysis: an introduction.
R. G. Rothwell and F. R. Rack (2006)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 267, 1-29
   Abstract »    PDF »
Canterbury Drifts at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1119, New Zealand: Climatic modulation of southwest Pacific intermediate water flows since 3.9 Ma.
R.M. Carter, C.S. Fulthorpe, and H. Lu (2004)
Geology 32, 1005-1008
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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