Australia: The Land Where Time Began Terminal Eocene Event This
refers to the effects on environments around the world of a
shift to a cooler state. It is believed these changes occurred
because of the glaciation of Antarctica had begun that resulted
in the present state of the continent. It was then that the West
Antarctica glaciers formed. The freezing of Antarctica at this
time had a profound effect on the rest of the world. The
formation of the Southern Ocean at least partially isolated
Antarctica from the warming influences from the rest of the
world. As the water cooled it began flowing as an abyssal
current north from Antarctica, changing deep ocean circulation
from a salinity-driven state to one dominated by temperature.
The Antarctic water still flows north as an abyssal current,
taking 400 years to reach Greenland via the Atlantic Ocean, and
1500 years to Arctic regions beneath the Pacific Ocean. It
returns to Antarctica as a middle layer in the oceans. On
reaching the cold downwelling water around