The role of dust in abrupt climate change: insights from offshore Northwest Africa and Alboran Sea sediment records
- Autores: A. Moreno, M. Canals
- Localización: Contributions to Science, ISSN-e 1575-6343, Vol. 2, Nº. 4, 2004, págs. 485-497
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
Marine sediments are one of the best archives of past climate change since they are essentially continuous in character and their age can be determined relatively easily. During the last few decades, many paleoclimatic studies have focused on abrupt climate changes, which could be used as models of future climate changes. One of the key questions to be answered is the role of the atmosphere in triggering and transferring abrupt climate changes. In this respect, investigating the influence of eolian dust particles on climate change deserves special attention. The study of eolian dust accumulation in marine sediments is crucial not only to understand past climate change but also to explain the mechanisms of climate change in general. In this article, interactions among dust in the atmosphere and rapid climate change are discussed after a review of marine sediment records, at the glacial-interglacial and millennial temporal scales, from off the coast of Northwest Africa and the Alboran Sea.
