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Ancient Alteration of Seawater Chemistry Linked With Past Climate Change

By Guest PostJuly 22, 2012Environmentadina paytan, alteration, antarctic ice sheet, candace major, cenozoic era, climate and evolution, climate change, collision, dissolution, eocene epoch, eurasia, greenhouse periods, gypsum, gypsum belt, gypsum deposit, hydrated calcium sulfate, icehouse climate, India, iodp, iran, joides resolution, marine, million years, mineral, national science foundation, ocean drillship, oman, Pakistan, phosphorus cycling, plate tectonics, santa cruz, seawater chemistry, sulfate aerosols, sulfate concentration, sulfur composition, ulrich wortmann, university of california, university of toronto, zagros mountains

Dissolution or creation of huge gypsum deposits changed sulfate content of the oceans

Scientists have discovered a potential cause of Earth’s “icehouse climate” cooling trend of the past 45 million years. It has everything to do with the chemistry of the world’s oceans.

“Seawater chemistry is characterized by long phases of stability, which are interrupted by short intervals of rapid change,” says geoscientist Ulrich Wortmann of the University of Toronto, lead author of a paper reporting the results and published this week in the journal Science.

“We’ve established a new framework that helps us better interpret evolutionary trends and climate change over long periods of time. The study focuses on the past 130 million years, but similar interactions have likely occurred through the past 500 million years.” (more…)

Oceans Acidifying Faster Today Than in Past 300 Million Years

By Guest PostMarch 2, 2012Environmentage of dinosaurs, barbel honisch, benthic foraminifera, candace major, coral reefs, ellen thomas, fossil carbonate shells, great dying, jurassic era, ocean acidification, ocean ph, siberian traps, white plankton fossils

*Few parallels for today’s rapid ocean changes in geologic record*

The oceans may be acidifying faster today than they did in the last 300 million years, according to scientists publishing a paper this week in the journal Science.

“What we’re doing today really stands out in the geologic record,” says lead author Bärbel Hönisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. (more…)

Significant Role of Oceans in Onset of Ancient Global Cooling

By Guest PostMay 28, 2011Environmentacc, american midwest, antarctic circumpolar current, antarctic intermediate water, benjamin cramer, benthic foraminifera, bridget wade, candace major, chengjie liu, deep sea drilling project, early cenozoic, environmental conditions, fossil skeletons, glaciations, global climate, global cooling pattern, global ocean circulation, global temperatures, greenhouse climate, icehouse, integrated ocean drilling program, isotopes, late eocene, marsupials, miriam katz, mixmaster of the ocean, ocean drilling program, ocean sediments, oceans, planktonic organisms, polar regions, sea floor, tropical jungles

*Evidence that early Antarctic Circumpolar Current development affected global climate*

Thirty-eight million years ago, tropical jungles thrived in what are now the cornfields of the American Midwest and furry marsupials wandered temperate forests in what is now the frozen Antarctic.

The temperature differences of that era, known as the late Eocene, between the equator and Antarctica were half what they are today. (more…)

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Ancient Alteration of Seawater Chemistry Linked With Past Climate Change

Oceans Acidifying Faster Today Than in Past 300 Million Years

Significant Role of Oceans in Onset of Ancient Global Cooling