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Journal of the Geological Society; May 2003; v. 160; no. 3; p. 337-340; DOI: 10.1144/0016-764902-115
© 2003 Geological Society of London
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Short Communication

Oceanic gateways as a critical factor to initiate icehouse Earth

ALAN G. SMITH1 and KEVIN T. PICKERING2

1 1Department of Earth Sciences University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EQ UK (e-mail: ags1@esc.cam.ac. uk)
2 2Department of Earth Sciences UCL (University College London) Gower Street London WC1E 6BT UK (e-mail: ucfbktp@ucl.acuk)

We propose a unifying explanation for the four major icehouses during the past c.620 million years: earliest Oligocene to Present; early Carboniferous to early Permian; late Ordovician and late Vendian (the ‘snowball Earth’) all of which appear to have been initiated as a result of two plate-tectonic processes. The first moved some continents into polar latitudes; while there the second process opened and closed oceanic low latitude gateways that changed global oceanic circulation from one with important circum-equatorial currents (greenhouse) to one with inhibited circum-equatorial deep-water currents (icehouse) and more restricted oceanic gyres.

KEYWORDS: Icehouse, glaciations, greenhouse, oceanic gateways




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