Climate of the Past Discussions www.clim-past-discuss.net 1814-9340 1814-9359 5 6 2009 10.5194/cpd-5-2439-2009 http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/2439/2009/ http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/2439/2009/cpd-5-2439-2009.html http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/2439/2009/cpd-5-2439-2009.pdf 2439 2464 2009-11-27 Mountain uplift and the threshold for sustained Northern Hemisphere Glaciation G. L. Foster g.l.foster@bristol.ac.uk D. J. Lunt R. R. Parrish Bristol Isotope Group, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol, BS8 1SS, UK NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK The Miocene (~24 to ~5 million years ago) was a period of relative global warmth (e.g. Zachos et al. 2001) characterised by the glaciation of Antarctica only. Paradoxically, the majority of available proxy data suggest that during the Miocene <i>p</i>CO₂ was similar, or even lower, than the pre-industrial levels (280 ppmv; Pagani et al., 1999; Pearson and Palmer, 2000; Kürschner et al., 1996, 2008) and at times probably crossed the modelled threshold value required for sustained glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere (DeConto et al., 2008). Records of ice rafted debris and the oxygen isotope composition of benthic foraminifera suggest that at several times over the last 25 million years substantial amounts of continental ice did build up in the Northern Hemisphere but none of these led to sustained glaciation. In this contribution we review evidence that suggests that in the Miocene the North American Cordillera was, at least in parts, considerably lower than today. 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