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Science 8 September 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5485, pp. 1719 - 1724
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5485.1719
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Research Articles

Climate Impact of Late Quaternary Equatorial Pacific Sea Surface Temperature Variations

David W. Lea,1* Dorothy K. Pak,1 Howard J. Spero2

Magnesium/calcium data from planktonic foraminifera in equatorial Pacific sediment cores demonstrate that tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were 2.8° ± 0.7°C colder than the present at the last glacial maximum. Glacial-interglacial temperature differences as great as 5°C are observed over the last 450 thousand years. Changes in SST coincide with changes in Antarctic air temperature and precede changes in continental ice volume by about 3 thousand years, suggesting that tropical cooling played a major role in driving ice-age climate. Comparison of SST estimates from eastern and western sites indicates that the equatorial Pacific zonal SST gradient was similar or somewhat larger during glacial episodes. Extraction of a salinity proxy from the magnesium/calcium and oxygen isotope data indicates that transport of water vapor into the western Pacific was enhanced during glacial episodes.

1 Department of Geological Sciences and Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
2 Department of Geology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lea{at}geol.ucsb.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)