6533b85cfe1ef96bd12bcb78

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Climatic ups and downs in a disturbed Jurassic world.

subject

description

4 pages; International audience; The tropical, warm, and equable climate of the Jurassic world is regularly challenged by geoscientists, especially since oxygen isotopes ( 18O) of fossil hardparts have been used to reconstruct the paleotemperature history of seawater. By applying the innovative “SiZer” (significant zero crossings of the derivatives) statistical approach to a newly compiled 18O database for the Jurassic, we demonstrate the occurrence of major and multiscale 18O changes mainly related to climate disturbances. For the first time, two long-term anomalies in 18O are identified during the Toarcian and the Late Jurassic, in conjunction with intensive volcanism in large igneous provinces. These results support a strong influence of repeated volcanic pulses on the modulation of pCO2, temperatures, and polar ice cap volumes over protracted periods. At shorter time scales, 13 relatively rapid (0.5–1 m.y.) and significant warming and cooling events are identified, the causes of which include transient fluctuations in greenhouse gas concentrations related to still-debated mechanisms.