Humans did not accelerate the decline of the ‘Green Sahara’ and may have managed to hold back the onset of the Sahara desert by around 500 years, according to new research led by UCL. (more…)
Scientists from the Camborne School of Mines have conducted a ground-breaking analysis of a Martian meteorite that dates back to the formation of the Earth.
Dr Gavyn Rollinsonused pioneering technology to map the mineralogy of a section of the meteorite – which was discovered in North Africa and is around 4.4 billion years old. (more…)
A fundamental shift in the Indian monsoon has occurred over the last few millennia, from a steady humid monsoon that favored lush vegetation to extended periods of drought, reports a new study led by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The study has implications for our understanding of the monsoon’s response to climate change.
The Indian peninsula sustains over a billion people, yet it lies at the same latitude as the Sahara Desert. Without a monsoon, most of India would be dry and uninhabitable. The ability to predict the timing and amount of the next year’s monsoon is vital, yet even our knowledge of the monsoon’s past variability remains incomplete. (more…)