An analysis of sediment cores indicates that North Atlantic waters were relatively warm and continued to circulate even under major climate stress during the Last Glacial Maximum.
paleoclimatology & paleoceanography
Posted inNews
Snowball Earth’s Liquid Seas Dipped Way Below Freezing
Iron isotopes show that salty seawater pockets beneath the ice were as cold as −15°C.
Posted inNews
How the Rise of a Salty Blob Led to the Fall of the Last Ice Age
Scientists have long suspected that high salinity levels in the deep ocean were responsible for keeping carbon dioxide locked away during the last ice age. New research finds the strongest evidence yet.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Successful Liquid Lake Conditions in a Cold Martian Paleoclimate
Simulations from a new lake model explain how liquid water could have been maintained over Mars in a cold climate, thus resolving a critical scientific gap in our understanding of Mars’ early history.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How a Move to the Shallows 300,000 Years Ago Drove a Phytoplankton Bloom
And what that could mean for today’s ocean.
Posted inAGU News
Preserving Corals to Study the Past and Document the Present
Corals hold valuable hints about our planet’s climate history, and they’re continuing to document today’s changing ocean. Scientists are working to preserve and protect these reefs of evidence.
Posted inNews
The Long and the Weak of It—The Ediacaran Magnetic Field
A roughly 70-million-year interval of anomalously weak magnetic field during the Ediacaran period could have triggered atmospheric changes that supported the rise of macroscopic life.
Posted inNews
New Lessons from Old Ice: How We Understand Past (and Future) Heating
Fragments of blue ice up to 6 million years old—the oldest ever found—offer key insights into Earth’s warming cycles. Researchers are using these ancient data to refine models of our future climate.
Posted inNews
Ocean Tunneling May Have Set Off an Ancient Pacific Cooldown
The ocean’s depths cooled off about 1.5 million years ago, and scientists think watery tunnels from the south may be to blame.
Posted inNews
Pamir Glacier Expedition Returns with High-Elevation Ice Cores
The three glacial cores will unlock mysteries about past climate and weather patterns in central Asia.