Magnetic proxy for the Deep (Pacific) Western Boundary Current variability across the Mid-Pleistocene climate transition

Abstract

The Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) inflow to the SW Pacific is one of the largest, transporting ~40% of the total input of deep water to the world’s oceans. Here we use a sedimentary record from the giant piston core MD97-2114 collected on the northern flank of the Chatham Rise located at 1935 m water depth, east of New Zealand, to investigate DWBC variability during the Pleistocene epoch when the period of glacial cycles changed progressively from a 41 kyr to 100 kyr rhythm. Magnetic grain-size may be directly related to orbitally forced fluctuations in the strength of the upper circumpolar deep water (UCDW) through its interaction with terrigenous sediments supplied from the south and west. The long-term trends in magnetic properties are characterized by two main perturbations centered at 870 ka (Marine Isotope Stage, MIS 22) 450 ka (MIS 12), which is broadly consistent with the inferred perturbation during the mid-Pleistocene climate transition based on sedimentological paleocurrent reconstruction from Ocean Drilling Program Site 1123 located at 3290 m water depth in the main core of the DWBC flow on the North Chatham Drift. This similarity suggests that both the upper and middle CDW are modulated by similar processes and fluctuations of Antarctic Bottom Water production could be directly responsible for this deep Pacific Ocean inflow variability over the past 1.2 Ma.