Tag Archives: paleoclimatology

Ancient clams disprove permanent El Niño theory

The prevailing theory and fear that rising global temperatures could result in permanent El Niño conditions have been called into question by an international research team on the basis of growth rings of prehistoric clams. A transition to a permanent … Continue reading →

Nature: climate change leads to 67-84 percent intraspecific biodiversity loss by 2080 – Holocene Mass Extinction within this century

The better we define the richness of life on Earth, the larger the percentage we are going to lose becomes. Life won’t go extinct. The number of domains and kingdoms will very-very likely remain the same. But as we go … Continue reading →

Permian-Triassic mass extinction: 11,000 Gt CO2 worth of climate change led to microbial plagues that killed the world’s forests

New research shows an example of a missing link between climatic disruptions and biodiversity decline: killer microbes.

Fossil driftwood tells Danish scientists the Arctic sea ice variations during Holocene are larger than we thought

During the Holocene Climatic Optimum of 8,000 to 5,000 years ago, the Arctic sea ice was less than 50% [so <2.6 mln sq km] of the lowest extent on satellite record, the 2007 melting record, researchers of Copenhagen University stated … Continue reading →

Eemian sea level rise update: just 1.6-2.2m from Greenland – Antarctic ice sheet less stable than we think?

Last week we learned 5 percent of the Eemian sea level rise was thermal expansion of the oceans. Today we learn the slightly higher temperatures led Greenland to ‘only’ add an extra 1.6-2.2m. Do we fail to spot the Antarctic … Continue reading →

Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction caused by >16,000 Gt methane – from clathrates

Scientists of Utrecht University have investigated fossil leaves found in terrestrial late Triassic sediments and discovered a large carbon-13 depletion. That means 200,000,000 years ago The Methane Bomb went off.

Eemian sea level rise of 8m was 95% meltwater – another paleo warning?

Sounds like there’s new food to calibrate our oceans’ sea level sensitivity. In red the image shows inundations around the Gulf of Mexico under Eemian sea levels. That’s ‘bye bye Houston, New Orleans, Miami.’ Two days ago we looked at … Continue reading →

Ongoing paleo study may help tune CO2 climate sensitivity

Here on Bitsofscience.org we’ve discussed the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) – that sudden CO2 and methane-induced peak climate warming (or ‘hyperthermal’) 55.8 million years ago of around 6 degrees over 20,000 years – on several occasions, because it offers an … Continue reading →

Ocean warming speeds up ice sheet melting Greenland and Antarctica

In March we learned ice sheet formation is two-sided. On Sunday, sipping coffee whilst reading the latest Nature Geoscience, we learned the same might go for ice sheet melting. If so, melting would likely accelerate over this century and sea … Continue reading →