Tasmanian Passage
The Tasmanian Passage , also Tasmanian Gateway or Tasmanian Seaway , is the name given to the sea route that was created when the two continental plates Australia and Antarctica separated about 30 to 40 million years ago. The Tasmanian Passage connects the Indic with the Pacific south of Australia. The term comes from geology . The distance between the two continents is currently around 2300 kilometers.
The opening of the Drake Passage and the Tasman Sea Route enabled the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to form at the beginning of the Oligocene , thus replacing the circumequatorial flow conditions of the Cretaceous period . The emergence of the circumpolar current led to a thermal insulation of the Antarctic, as the exchange with equatorial warm waters was greatly reduced. As a result, the Antarctic ice cap was formed and the earth entered the current Cenozoic Ice Age .
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ American Geophysical Union: Timing and nature of the deepening of the Tasmanian Gateway.
- ^ PF Barker, E. Thomas: Origin, signature and palaeoclimatic influence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Earth-Science Reviews, 66: 1-2, pp. 143-162 (2004)
- ↑ The influence of ocean gateways on climate. Numerical sensitivity studies on ocean circulation rearrangements. (PDF; 116 kB) Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 11, EGU2009-13003, 2009