Description

The Oligocene and Miocene Epochs comprise the most important phases in the Cenozoic global cooling that led from a greenhouse to an icehouse Earth.

Recent major advances in the understanding and time-resolution of climate events taking place at this time, as well as the proliferation of studies on Oligocene and Miocene shallow-water/neritic carbonate systems, invite us to re-evaluate the significance of these carbonate systems in the context of changes in climate and Earth surface processes. Carbonate systems, because of a wide dependence on the ecological requirements of organisms producing the sediment, are sensitive recorders of changes in environmental conditions on the Earth surface.