A new map of climate conditions during the Pliocene epoch—the last time Earth’s carbon dioxide concentrations hit 400 parts per million—could offer clues about possible climatic changes in store for the 21st century.
Pliocene
Posted inEditors' Vox
Marine Sediments Reveal Past Climate Responses to CO2 Changes
Climate records stored in marine sediments reveal different ice sheet and ocean responses to falling atmospheric CO2 concentrations from the warm Pliocene to the ice ages of the Pleistocene.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Pliocene Conveyer Belt in the Pacific
Ocean Drilling Program cores and helium isotopes put better constraints on the ocean circulation in the north Pacific.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
A Drier or Wetter Future for Southwestern North America?
Bhattacharya et al. present evidence that expansion of the North American Monsoon explains a wetter southwest in the mid-Pliocene and suggest this mechanism can explain current monsoon variations.
Posted inFeatures
Lina C. Pérez-Ángel: Proud to Study Paleoclimate in Colombia
As a young Latina, Pérez-Ángel brings a fresh perspective to paleoclimatology.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Irtysh River Drove Arctic Sea Ice Expansion 3 Million Years Ago
The Siberian river’s creation caused a massive influx of fresh water into the Kara Sea and radically changed the Arctic Ocean and Earth’s climate.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Researchers Home in on the Age of the Yangtze River
Findings on the river’s age also have implications for past landscape change in Asia.
Posted inNews
Dust on the Wind
A new study confirms that an important wind system is shifting due to climate change.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Ancient Sea Levels in South Africa May Offer Modern Analogues
Largely spared from disruptive tectonic activity, the South African coastline offers a natural setting to study sea levels from when Earth’s atmospheric carbon dioxide last reached today’s levels.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Southern Hemisphere Sediments Show Surprising Pliocene Cyclicity
New, high-resolution paleoclimate reconstructions with 100,000-year rhythms may offer insights into how Earth’s climate system operated during a time when the planet was warmer than it is today.