Reconstruction reveals how people living along the banks of the Nile may have relocated as climate changed and flooding increased during the African Humid Period.
paleoclimatology & paleoceanography
Inland Mangroves Are Relics of the Past’s Higher Sea Levels
Mangroves found in southern Mexico’s rain forest, 170 kilometers from the nearest ocean, date to a time when sea levels were several meters higher.
A Dipole Field from the Ediacaran-Cambrian Transition Onward?
The Ediacaran features an instable magnetic field complicating paleogeographic reconstructions; a new paleointensity study on late Ediacaran rocks indicates a weak but stable dipolar field.
Greener, Wetter Arabia Was a Crossroads of Early Human Migration
Hand axes, hippo bones, and a stack of ancient lake beds show that arid Arabia experienced intervals of humid weather, spurring pulses of human migration over the past 400,000 years.
Navigating Miocene Ocean Temperatures for Insights into the Future
A new temperature data portal will aid scientists in tracking and accessing paleoclimate data from the Miocene, a past warm climate interval and future climate analogue.
Freshwater Mussel Shells May Retain Record of Alpine Snowpack
A new study explores a possible proxy for seasonal freshwater input that could elucidate changes in alpine snowpack as the planet warms.
Cool Oasis for Cretaceous Feathered Dinosaurs
A new study found that the Jehol Biota had chilly temperatures and high altitudes when feathered dinosaurs roamed the slopes.
Small Climate Changes Could Be Magnified by Natural Processes
A new study uses modeling techniques to uncover how small incidents of warming may be turned into hyperthermal events lasting thousands of years.
Swipe Left on the “Big One”: Better Dates for Cascadia Quakes
Improving our understanding of hazards posed by future large earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone requires advancements in the methods and sampling used to date and characterize past events.
Sedimentary Tepees Record Ocean Chemistry
Sedimentary structures from evaporative coastal environments indicate carbonate saturation, offer insight in mid-Mesozoic ocean chemistry and potentially even earlier times.