Drop in carbon dioxide levels led to polar ice sheet (~ 34 million years ago) study finds

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2011/111201HuberGlaciation.html

Drop in carbon dioxide levels led to polar ice sheet, study finds

December 1, 2011

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A drop in carbon dioxide appears to be the driving force that led to the Antarctic ice sheet's formation, according to a recent study led by scientists at Yale and Purdue universities of molecules from ancient algae found in deep-sea core samples.

The key role of the greenhouse gas in one of the biggest climate events in Earth's history supports carbon dioxide's importance in past climate change and implicates it as a significant force in present and future climate.

The team pinpointed a threshold for low levels of carbon dioxide below which an ice sheet forms in the South Pole, but how much the greenhouse gas must increase before the ice sheet melts - which is the relevant question for the future - remains a mystery.

Matthew Huber, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue, said roughly a 40 percent decrease in carbon dioxide occurred prior to and during the rapid formation of a mile-thick ice sheet over the Antarctic approximately 34 million years ago.

…

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1203909

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I'm learning how to breathe methane. n/t

[Nihil]

2. Move to PA and you can learn how to drink it too! (n/t)

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