Author	Topic:   Ancient Earth
Ocean Was a Hot Tub in Dino Era (Moderator)	posted 2/18/06 4:26 AM     Ocean Was a Hot Tub in Dino Era LiveScience Staff LiveScience.com Fri Feb 17, 5:02 PM ET Hot tub sales would have been dismal back in the dinosaur era, when the steaming ocean provided a free alternative. In fact, in some places it was too hot to dip a toe. A new study of ancient sediments and fossils indicates tropical Atlantic water ranged from 91 to 107 degrees Fahrenheit between 100 million and 84 million years ago. The same region today is typically 75 to 82 degrees. Hot tubs get very uncomfortable for most people above about 104 degrees. "These temperatures are off the charts from what we've seen before," said Karen Bice, a paleoclimatologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The atmosphere had more heat-trapping carbon dioxide back then. Bice reported the findings today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in St. Louis. The work will be detailed in the journal Paleoceanography. Scientists don't know what might have caused ocean temperatures to get so high. Climate models that consider increases in carbon dioxide can't account for it, Bice said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060217/sc_space/oceanwasahottubindinoera
ANTARCTIC GLACIERS SHOW EARTH'S CLIMATE SYSTEM CAPABLE OF RAPID SHIFTS (Moderator)	posted 5/14/06 1:19 PM     ANTARCTIC GLACIERS SHOW EARTH'S CLIMATE SYSTEM CAPABLE OF RAPID SHIFTS mongabay.com May 8, 2006 http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0508-glaciers.html Researchers at Syracuse University have determined that glaciers once covered a much larger area of Antarctica than originally thought, suggesting that Earth's climate system is capable of rapid shifts. Looking at sediments from marine deposits and rock sources on Seymour Island, Syracuse University Professors Linda C. Ivany and Scott D. Samson along with colleagues at the University of Leuven in Belgium and Hamilton College found evidence that glaciers once covered extensive parts of the West Antarctica ice sheet. Previously, scientists had assumed that glaciers were confined to the eastern part of Antarctica, where the biggest ice sheet is today. The findings are significant because they suggest that the climatic response to the drop in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere 34 million years ago was greater than initially believed. ³One of the most fundamental climate shifts that this planet has undergone since the events that precipitated the extinction of the dinosaurs is the so-called Œgreenhouse to icehouse transitionı -- the time when Earth went from having virtually no ice on it at all to one with a more or less permanent ice sheet covering Antarctica,² said Ivany, a professor of earth science at Syracuse and lead investigator of the study. ³This happened about 34 million years ago, and is marked by dramatic changes in the chemistry of the oceans and the appearance of Œice rafted debrisı in ocean sediments around Antarctica, carried there by icebergs from land that floated out and melted far from the continent, releasing the sand and rock that had been frozen into them.² According to a release from the research team, scientists believe the "growth of the Antarctic ice sheet was initiated by a drop in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere in combination with a change in ocean circulation caused by South America pulling away from Antarctica" during the Eocene-Oligocene transition. The researchers say that at this time, Earth cooled rapidly enough to allow the growth of ice on the entire Antarctic continent all at once. The researchers conclude that "because Earthıs climate system is capable of shifting this rapidly and dramatically to such a new and different state, their discovery may provide an insight into how things could change in the future if we continue to alter our environment." The research is published in the article ³Evidence for an Earliest Oligocene Ice Sheet on the Antarctic Peninsula,² in the May 2006 issue of the journal, Geology and was supported by funding from the National Science Foundationıs Office of Polar Programs. Informant: NHNE http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/1936931/

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