Author Archives: Rolf Schuttenhelm

Dinosaurs were pretty big – and yes, that’s how evolution had them in mind

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey – which means it’s time for the Geological Society of America annual meeting. A couple of days packed with discussions and research presentations about stuff you did not know in … Continue reading →

Local Indonesian El Niño progression, possibility strong wildfire season Borneo, Sumatra

Over the course of 2012 ENSO has moved from La Niña to El Niño state. Various ENSO forecasting models (see NOAA NECP, IRI ensemble below) now show Pacific equatorial SSTs anomalies will remain positive for the remainder of 2012 – … Continue reading →

Can’t see a problem in the middle of a greenhouse? CO2 clouds the mind – from 1000+ ppm

Hypercapnia it turns out, develops much more gradually than previously assumed. Apparently long before we pass thresholds that mean real medical trouble, our bodies – and our minds – can be disturbed by elevated CO2 levels in the air around … Continue reading →

Europe can have warm Gulf Stream and ice age cold peak simultaneously

Judging by new ocean sediment measurements and climate model runs the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) was ‘at least as strong’ during the last ice age’s Last Glacial Maximum as it is today.

´Medieval Warm Period should simply be named Medieval Period´

There is climatology and there is paleoclimatology. And then there is something in between. You thought yesterday´s trip to the early Pleistocene was geologically speaking exactly that, a trip to yesterday? Well, in that case today we go only a … Continue reading →

Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary: did Eltanin asteroid kickstart the ice ages?

Sediment deposits along shores of Antarctica, New Zealand and Chile suggest over 2 million years ago something big must have plunged somewhere in the middle of that triangle, creating a mega tsunami with hundreds of meters high waves engulfing coastal … Continue reading →

Arctic sea ice literally halved – September 2012 smashes old record, 3.29 million km2 ice gone

As the days shorten and the summer sun is slowly setting under the horizon, the frost is returning to the Arctic and American scientists make up the balance of what has turned out to be an unprecedented melting season. The … Continue reading →