In a new study reported in Nature, climate scientist Rob DeConto of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues elsewhere propose a simple new mechanism to explain the source of carbon that fed a series of extreme warming events about 55 million years ago, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), and a sequence of similar, smaller warming events afterward.
Tag Archives: climate record
New Greenland melting record – thawing across 97 percent ice sheet surface
First there was ‘unprecedented melting’ in 2005, then came the new Greenland melting record of 2010 – again to be broken this year, during the hot July of 2012, NASA images show.
Largest known sea level rise took less than 350 years
Ocean level rise is known as one of the most disquieting effects of global warming, with more than three billion people living on the coast or less than 200 kilometres land inward and one tenth of the world population living … Continue reading
Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum caused by thawing permafrost?
Carbon dioxide’s climate effects confirmed: temperatures followed rising CO2 levels during last deglaciation
There has been much speculation about what exactly caused the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. Some say the Earth’s orbital changes were the cause, others say it was an increase in atmospheric CO2. But although a … Continue reading
Arctic ice has had a good winter
Each year at the end of winter the Arctic sea ice reaches its maximum extent. Although unsurprisingly this ice maximum receives less media attention than the annual sea ice minimum in September, combining the two gives a better representation of … Continue reading
NASA GISS: 2011 9th-warmest year on record – hot for a strong La Niña
Graph of the day: world temperature record between 1880 and 2011, showing annual and 5-year mean temperature, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) data. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, Robert Simmon.
Tectonic response measured to 2010 Greenland melting record
To notice something is going on with the world’s ice sheets, you could measure melting water runoff, glacier retreat or use satellites and GPS to measure ice volume decline. Just like measuring sea level rise and temperature this all adds … Continue reading
Despite recession carbon emissions keep rising to new records
We knew CO2 emissions reached a new record high in 2010, at 30.6 gigatonnes. Now a new study by CICERO, the Tyndall Centre and other institutes reconfirms the strong rebound after the 2008 global financial crisis – and predicts that … Continue reading
Marine biodiversity driven by environmental changes
Our most important source for knowledge about past life is the fossil record. But how exact is it in telling us about the history of life? According to a new study in Science the evolution of marine life over the … Continue reading