Tools and Strategies

Integration

The Earth's climate has undergone fundamental changes from a warm "greenhouse" state during the Cretaceous period (130-65 Million years) to a cold bipolar "icehouse" Earth. Global cooling during the icehouse state took place in steps during the Eocene-Oligocene (~34 Ma), the Mid-Miocene (~15 Ma), Latest Miocene-Earliest Pliocene (~to 4.2 Ma), and onset of extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation at ~2.5 Ma. Throughout these 130 million years, the Antarctic continent has remained in a polar position while a "Mediterranean" Arctic deep ocean basin has been formed by motion of continental fragments and seafloor spreading. The needs to understand the mechanism by which climatic extremes developed, are maintained and ended has been identified as an important initiative of the new Integrated Ocean Drilling Program science plan "Earth, Oceans, and Life". These issues are fundamental to understand future global changes.

Contributors:
Jan Backman, backman@geo.su.se
Carlota Escutia, cescutia@ugr.es
Nils Holm, nils.holm@geo.su.se
Heide Marie Kassens hkassens@geomar.de
Yngve Kristofferson yngve@ifjf.uib.no