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Science 14 January 2000:
Vol. 287. no. 5451, pp. 269 - 272
DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5451.269
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Research Articles

Cenozoic Deep-Sea Temperatures and Global Ice Volumes from Mg/Ca in Benthic Foraminiferal Calcite

C. H. Lear, * H. Elderfield, P. A. Wilson dagger

A deep-sea temperature record for the past 50 million years has been produced from the magnesium/calcium ratio (Mg/Ca) in benthic foraminiferal calcite. The record is strikingly similar in form to the corresponding benthic oxygen isotope (delta 18O) record and defines an overall cooling of about 12°C in the deep oceans with four main cooling periods. Used in conjunction with the benthic delta 18O record, the magnesium temperature record indicates that the first major accumulation of Antarctic ice occurred rapidly in the earliest Oligocene (34 million years ago) and was not accompanied by a decrease in deep-sea temperatures.

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chl26{at}esc.cam.ac.uk

dagger    Present address: School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Southampton Oceanography Centre, European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.

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