| The Pliocene (5.3-2.6Ma) is often described as a relatively stable climatic period, with warm temperatures characterizing high latitudes. New suborbital resolved stable isotope records from Ocean Drilling Program Hole 642B in the eastern Nordic Seas document that the Pliocene was not a stable period characterized by one climate. Rather, seven distinct climate phases, each lasting between 150,000 and 400,000years, are identified and characterized in the time interval 5.1-3.1Ma. Four of the transitions between the defined climate phases occurred close to an eccentricity minimum and a minimum in amplitude of change for Northern Hemisphere summer insolation, while two occurred around an eccentricity maximum and a maximum in amplitude in insolation change.... |
