Oceans
The Oligocene sees the beginnings of modern ocean circulation, with tectonic shifts causing the opening and closing of ocean gateways. Cooling of the oceans had already commenced by the Eocene/Oligocene boundary, and they continued to cool as the Oligocene progressed. The formation of permanent Antarctic ice sheets during the early Oligocene and possible glacial activity in the Arctic may have influenced this oceanic cooling, though the extent of this influence is still a matter of some significant dispute.
Read more about this topic: Oligocene
Famous quotes containing the word oceans:
“It isn’t the oceans which cut us off from the world—it’s the American way of looking at things.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“You there, I here,
With just the door ajar
That oceans are,
And prayer,
And that pale sustenance,
Despair!”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“... for the modern soul, for which it is mere child’s play to bridge oceans and continents, there is nothing so impossible as to find the contact with the souls dwelling just around the corner.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)