Onset of strong Iceland-Scotland overflow water 3.6 million years ago

Sinnesael, Matthias ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0354-8250; Karatsolis, Boris-Theofanis; Pearson, Paul N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4628-9818; Briais, Anne; Hemming, Sidney R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8117-2303; LeVay, Leah J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3031-7079; Dunkley Jones, Tom ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9518-8143; Cui, Ying ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1057-4369; Di Chiara, Anita ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9106-9796; Dodd, Justin P.; Dwyer, Deepa; Eason, Deborah E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0563-450X; Friedman, Sarah A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2984-6299; Hanson, Emma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7812-7269; Hochmuth, Katharina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2789-2179; Ibrahim, Halima E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0067-5202; Jasper, Claire E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4630-3552; Lee-Takeda, Saran ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0515-3653; LeBlanc, Danielle E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0185-2398; Lindsay, Melody R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1609-6831; McNamara, David D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9789-2436; Modestou, Sevasti E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9820-5551; Morris, Margaret A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2399-6552; Murton, Bramley J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1522-1191; OConnell, Suzanne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8214-6219; Pasquet, Gabriel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5285-728X; Qian, Sheng-Ping; Rosenthal, Yair ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7546-6011; Satolli, Sara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9848-9745; Suzuki, Takuma; Thulasi, Thena ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9304-8665; Wade, Bridget S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7245-8614; White, Nicholas J.; Wu, Tao; Yang, Alexandra Y. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5729-1588; Parnell-Turner, Ross E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0641-3634. 2025 Onset of strong Iceland-Scotland overflow water 3.6 million years ago. Nature Communications, 16 (1). 10.1038/s41467-025-59265-5

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Abstract/Summary

North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), the return flow component of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is a major inter-hemispheric ocean water mass with strong climate effects but the evolution of its source components on million-year timescales is poorly known. Today, two major NADW components that flow southward over volcanic ridges to the east and west of Iceland are associated with distinct contourite drift systems that are forming off the coast of Greenland and on the eastern flank of the Reykjanes (mid-Atlantic) Ridge. Here we provide direct records of the early history of this drift sedimentation based on cores collected during International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) Expeditions 395C and 395. We find rapid acceleration of drift deposition linked to the eastern component of NADW, known as Iceland–Scotland Overflow Water at 3.6 million years ago (Ma). In contrast, the Denmark Strait Overflow Water feeding the western Eirik Drift has been persistent since the Late Miocene. These observations constrain the long-term evolution of the two NADW components, revealing their contrasting independent histories and allowing their links with climatic events such as Northern Hemisphere cooling at 3.6 Ma, to be assessed.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1038/s41467-025-59265-5
ISSN:	2041-1723
Date made live:	30 Jun 2025 11:51 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/539716

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