Document Type

Article

Version Deposited

Published Version

Publication Date

9-1-2021

Publication Title

Geophysical Research Letters

DOI

10.1029/2021GL095036

Abstract

This study provides a Miocene-to-recent history of Tasman Leakage (TL), driving surfaceto-intermediate waters from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean. TL, in addition to Indonesian ThroughFlow (ITF), constitutes an important part of the Southern Hemisphere Supergyre. Here, we employ deep-sea benthic δ13C timeseries from the southwestern Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans to identify the history of Tasman Leakage. The δ13C results combined with sedimentary evidence show that an inter-ocean connection south of Australia existed from 7 Ma onward. A southward shift in Westerlies combined with a northward movement of Australia created the oceanic corridor necessary for Tasman Leakage (between Australia and the sub-Antarctic Front) at this time. Furthermore, changes in the northern limb of the Supergyre (ITF) are evident in the sedimentary record on Broken Ridge from ∼3 to 2 Ma when Banda Sea intermediate waters started originating from the North Pacific.

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© 2021. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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