Carbon Cycle Feedbacks During The East Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse Of 23 Million Years Ago
Tuesday, July 16, 2013 - 09:00
in Earth & Climate
New evidence is helping to solve the mystery surrounding a collapse of the Antarctic ice sheet 23 million years ago. The surface of the East Antarctic ice sheet is so cold that models can only simulate its collapse by applying a significant climatic warming. Yet numerous lines of evidence suggest that 23 million years ago the Antarctic ice sheet decayed in size as changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun drove more subtle changes in Earth's seasons. Scientists from Cardiff University's School of Earth and Ocean Sciences analyzed fossil "foraminifera". These microscopic animals live in the ocean - on death their shells collect on the seafloor making a geological record of the past. read more