Henk Brinkhuis

NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research | NIOZ

At present, a strong latitudinal sea surface temperature (SST) gradient of ~16 °C exists across the Southern Ocean, maintained by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and a set of complex frontal systems. Together with the Antarctic ice masses, this system has formed one of the most important global climate regulators. The timing of the onset of...

Eocene transient global warming events (hyperthermals) can provide insight into a future, warmer world. While much research has focused on the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), hyperthermals of smaller magnitude can be used to characterize climatic responses over different magnitudes of forcing. This study identifies two events, Eocene Therm...

The middle Eocene climatic optimum (ca. 40 Ma) stands out as a transient global warming phase of ∼400 k.y. duration that interrupted long-term Eocene cooling; it has been associated with a rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations that has been linked to a flare-up in Arabia-Eurasia continental arc volcanism. Increased organic carbon burial in the Tet...

Improvements in our capability to reconstruct ancient surface-ocean conditions based on organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) assemblages from the Southern Ocean provide an opportunity to better establish past position, strength and oceanography of the subtropical front (STF). Here, we aim to reconstruct the late Eocene to early Miocene (37...

Antarctic continental ice masses fluctuated considerably during the Oligocene “coolhouse”, at elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations of ∼600–800 ppm. To assess the role of the ocean in the Oligocene ice sheet variability, reconstruction of past ocean conditions in the proximity of the Antarctic margin is needed. While relatively warm ocean conditi...

Antarctic continental ice masses fluctuated considerably in size during the elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations (~ 600–800 ppm) of the Oligocene “coolhouse”. To evaluate the role of ocean conditions to the Oligocene ice sheet variability requires understanding of past ocean conditions around the ice sheet. While warm ocean conditions have been...

Several studies indicate that North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formation might have initiated during the globally warm Eocene (56–34 million years ago; Ma). However, constraints on Eocene surface ocean conditions in source regions presently conducive to deep‐water formation are sparse. Here we test whether ocean conditions of the middle Eocene Labr...

During the Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT; 34–33.5 Ma), Antarctic ice sheets relatively rapidly expanded, leading to the first continent-scale glaciation of the Cenozoic. Declining atmospheric CO 2 concentrations and associated feedbacks have been invoked as underlying mechanisms, but the role of the quasi-coeval opening of Southern Ocean gateway...

The Eocene – Oligocene Transition (EOT, ∼34–33.5 Ma) marks a major transition in Cenozoic climate evolution through the relatively rapid establishment of a continental-scale ice sheet on Antarctica. The EOT is characterized by two ∼200 kyr spaced shifts (termed EOT-1 and Oi-1) in the oxygen isotopic composition (σ18O) of benthic foraminifera, repre...

The volume of the Antarctic continental ice sheet(s) varied substantially during the Oligocene and Miocene ( ∼ 34–5 Ma) from smaller to substantially larger than today, both on million-year and on orbital timescales. However, reproduction through physical modeling of a dynamic response of the ice sheets to climate forcing remains problematic, sugge...

The Eocene – Oligocene Transition (EOT, ~34–33.5 Ma) marks a major transition in Cenozoic climate evolution through the relatively rapid establishment of a continental-scale ice sheet on Antarctica. The EOT is characterized by two ~200 kyr spaced shifts (termed EOT-1 and Oi-1) in the oxygen isotopic composition (δ18O) of benthic foraminifera, repre...

Antarctic ice sheet and Southern Ocean paleoceanographic configurations during the late Oligocene are not well resolved. They are however important to understand the influence of high-latitude Southern Hemisphere feedbacks on global climate under CO2 scenarios (between 400 and 750 ppm) projected by the IPCC for this century, assuming unabated CO2 e...

The Chicxulub asteroid impact at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary resulted in one of the most abrupt global warming events in the past 100 m.y., presenting an analogue to current global warming. Here, we present high-resolution geochemical, micropaleontological, and palynological records of the Brazos-1 (Texas, USA), Stevns Klint (Denmark),...

The GSSP for the base of the Chattian Stage (Paleogene System, Oligocene Series) is defined at meter level 197 in the Monte Cagnero section, which belongs to the pelagic succession of the Umbria-Marche basin (Urbania, central Italy: 43°38′47.81″N-12°28′03.83″E). This level with an astronomical age of 27.82 Ma coincides with the highest common occur...

We assess the disputed phase relations between forcing and climatic response in the early Pleistocene with a spliced Gelasian (∼ 2.6–1.8 Ma) multi-proxy record from the southern North Sea basin. The cored sections couple climate evolution on both land and sea during the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation (NHG) in NW Europe, providing...

Observations and model experiments highlight the importance of ocean heat in forcing ice sheet retreat during the present and geological past, but past ocean temperature data are virtually missing in ice sheet proximal locations. Here we document paleoceanographic conditions and the (in)stability of the Wilkes Land subglacial basin (East Antarctica...

The First Occurrence of the cysts of the dinoflagellate Galeacysta etrusca is a well-known marker for the final stage of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Mediterranean Basin. This taxon originated from the Paratethys in the north and migrated in a stepwise fashion towards the Mediterranean. Using the First Occurrence of this species throughout...

The late Oligocene experienced atmospheric concentrations of CO2 between 400 and 750 ppm, which are within the IPCC projections for this century, assuming unabated CO2 emissions. However, Antarctic ice sheet and Southern Ocean paleoceanographic configurations during the late Oligocene are not well resolved, but are important to understand the influ...

We assess the disputed phase relations between forcing and climatic response in the Early Pleistocene with a spliced Gelasian (~ 2.6–1.8 Ma) multi-proxy record from the southern North Sea. The cored sections couple climate evolution on both land and sea during the onset of Northern Hemisphere Glaciations (NHG) in NW Europe, providing the first well...

Upper Maastrichtian to lower Paleocene, coarse-grained deposits of the Lefip an Formation in Chubut Province , (Patagonia, Argentina) provide an opportunity to study environmental changes across the Cretaceous–Palaeo-gene (K–Pg) boundary in a shallow marine depositional environment. Marine palynological and organic geochemical analyses were perform...

It is commonly accepted that the mass extinction associated with the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary (∼ 66 Ma) is related to the environmental effects of a large extraterrestrial impact. The biological and oceanographic consequences of the mass extinction are, however, still poorly understood. According to the Living Ocean model, the biologica...

The taxonomic revision of the dinoflagellate cyst subfamily Wetzelielloideae by Williams et al. (2015) places primary emphasis on the type of archaeopyle, and secondarily on wall ornamentation. Williams et al. (2015) argue that the emphasis placed on the archaeopyle type as taxonomic criterion provides much more clarity for taxonomic differentiatio...

It is by now unequivocally shown that the mass extinction associated with the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary (~ 66 Ma) is related to the environmental effects of a large extraterrestrial impact. The biological and oceanographic consequences of the mass extinction are, however, still poorly understood. According to the Living Ocean model of D’...

Abrupt and short-lived "impact winter" conditions have commonly been implicated as the main mechanism leading to the mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary (ca. 66 Ma), marking the end of the reign of the non-avian dinosaurs. However, so far only limited evidence has been available for such a climatic perturbation. Here we perf...

Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2), a ∼ 600 kyr episode close to the Cenomanian–Turonian boundary (ca. 94 Ma), is characterized by relatively widespread marine anoxia and ranks amongst the warmest intervals of the Phanerozoic. The early stages of OAE2 are, however, marked by an episode of widespread transient cooling and bottom water oxygenation: the Pl...

Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2), a ~600 kyr episode close to the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary (ca. 94 Ma), is characterized by widespread marine anoxia and ranks amongst the warmest intervals of the Phanerozoic. The early stages of OAE2 are, however, marked by an episode of widespread transient cooling and bottom water oxygenation: the Plenus Cold Ev...

NB: The Paleolatitude calculator on www.paleolatitude.org has been updated in April 2016 to extend back to 550 Ma. Realistic appraisal of paleoclimatic information obtained from a particular location requires accurate knowledge of its paleolatitude defined relative to the Earth's spin-axis. This is crucial to, among others, correctly assess the am...

Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 318 recovered lower Eocene sediments in Hole U1356A from the continental rise of the Wilkes Land Margin, Antarctica. These sediments yielded a new genus of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts (Adeliesphaera gen. nov.). We tentatively place this new genus within the suborder Gonyaulacineae, family...

Global warming, changes in the hydrological cycle and enhanced marine primary productivity all have been invoked as having contributed to the occurrence of widespread ocean anoxia during the Cenomanian–Turonian oceanic anoxic event (OAE2; ~94 Ma), but disentangling these factors on a regional scale has remained problematic. In an attempt to separat...

Diatom analysis of a sediment core recovered at IODP Site U1358 on the continental shelf off the Adélie Coast indicated that the lower section of the core contained an assemblage dating back to the Thalassiosira innura Zone of the lower Pliocene that ranges from 4.2 to 5.12 Ma. Based on lithological descriptions at both a macro- and micro-scale of...

Global warming, changes in the hydrological cycle and enhanced marine primary productivity all have been invoked as having contributed to the occurrence of widespread ocean anoxia during the Cenomanian–Turonian oceanic anoxic event (OAE2; c. 94 Ma), but disentangling these factors on a regional scale has remained problematic. In an attempt to separ...

IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program) Expedition 318 drilled a transect of sites across the Wilkes Land margin of Antarctica to provide a long-term record of the sedimentary archives of Cenozoic Antarctic glaciation and its intimate relationships with global climatic and oceanographic change. The Wilkes Land drilling program was undertaken to co...

The Pliocene and Early Pleistocene, between 5.3 and 0.8 million years ago, span a transition from a global climate state that was 2–3 °C warmer than present with limited ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere to one that was characterized by continental-scale glaciations at both poles. Growth and decay of these ice sheets was paced by variations in...

Global warming, changes in the hydrological cycle and enhanced marine primary productivity all have been invoked to have contributed to the occurrence of widespread ocean anoxia during the Cenomanian-Turonian Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE2; ~ 94 Ma), but disentangling these factors on a regional scale has remained problematic. We generated palynologica...

Reconstructing the early Palaeogene climate dynamics of terrestrial settings in the high southern latitudes is important to assess the role of high-latitude physical and biogeochemical processes in the global climate system. However, whereas a number of high-quality Palaeogene climate records has become available for the marine realm of the high so...

During the Cenozoic the Antarctic continent experienced large fluctuations in ice-sheet volume. We investigate the effects of Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) on Southern Ocean circulation for the first continental scale glaciation of Antarctica (∼ 34 Myr) by combining solid Earth and ocean dynamic modeling. A newly compiled global early Oligocen...

A vast shallow epicontinental sea extended across Eurasia and was well-connected to the Western Tethys before it retreated westward and became isolated as the Paratethys Sea. However, the palaeogeography and the timing of this westward retreat are too poorly constrained to determine potential wider environmental impacts, let alone understanding und...

The late Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) was an extraordinary geologic event in the Mediterranean Basin marked by massive salt accumulation and presumably basin desiccation as a consequence of the reduced water exchange with the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery of a desiccation deposit in the Black Sea, the so-called Pebbly Breccia unit, was u...

Significance Here, for the first time (to our knowledge), we are able to demonstrate unambiguously that the impact at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–Pg, ∼66 Mya) was followed by a so-called “impact winter.” This impact winter was the result of the injection of large amounts of dust and aerosols into the stratosphere and significantly reduced...

Eastern Mediterranean sediments are characterized by the cyclic occurrence of organic-rich layers, sapropels. Sapropel deposition is dominantly controlled by variations in precession, which drive the Northern Hemisphere seasonal contrast and the African monsoon intensity. During precession minima increased freshwater input (e.g., Nile runoff) weake...

The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) represents a ~170 kyr episode of anomalous global warmth ~56 Ma ago. The PETM is associated with rapid and massive injections of 13C-depleted carbon into the ocean–atmosphere system reflected as a prominent negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE) in sedimentary components. Earth's surface and deep ocean w...

A palynological analysis of the section of La Colonia Formation exposed at Estancia San Miguel yielded conspicuous assemblages of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts) and green algae. The monotypic palaeoperidinioid dinocyst assemblage of ? Ginginodinium sp. in the basal beds of this section indicates low-salinity water conditions in a r...

The Salamanca Formation of the San Jorge Basin (Patagonia, Argentina) preserves critical records of Southern Hemisphere Paleocene biotas, but its age remains poorly resolved, with estimates ranging from Late Cretaceous to middle Paleocene. We report a multi-disciplinary geochronologic study of the Salamanca Formation and overlying Rio Chico Group i...

The geological record provides evidence for the periodic occurrence of water column anoxia and formation of organic-rich deposits in the North Atlantic Ocean during the mid-Cretaceous (hereafter called the proto-North Atlantic). Both changes in primary productivity and oceanic circulation likely played a role in the development of the low-oxygen co...