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Permanent El Niño-Like Conditions During the Pliocene Warm Period

Michael W. Wara, Ana Christina Ravelo, and Margaret L. Delaney
Science • 29 Jul 2005 • Vol 309, Issue 5735 • pp. 758-761 • DOI: 10.1126/science.1112596
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Abstract

During the warm early Pliocene (∼4.5 to 3.0 million years ago), the most recent interval with a climate warmer than today, the eastern Pacific thermocline was deep and the average west-to-east sea surface temperature difference across the equatorial Pacific was only 1.5 ± 0.9°C, much like it is during a modern El Niño event. Thus, the modern strong sea surface temperature gradient across the equatorial Pacific is not a stable and permanent feature. Sustained El Niño-like conditions, including relatively weak zonal atmospheric (Walker) circulation, could be a consequence of, and play an important role in determining, global warmth.
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Science
Volume 309 | Issue 5735
29 July 2005

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American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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Submission history

Received: 22 March 2005
Accepted: 14 June 2005
Published in print: 29 July 2005

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Michael W. Wara
Ocean Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
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Ana Christina Ravelo*
Ocean Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
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Margaret L. Delaney
Ocean Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
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Notes

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]

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