History Of Climate Change Understood From Antarctica

by Tanya on  March 31, 2009 at 10:18 AM Environmental Health
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Scientists are able to study the history of climate change in the earth over the years thanks to dust trapped deep in Antarctic ice sheets, that helps in the initiative.

The study, carried out by the Universities of Edinburgh, Stirling and Lille, has found that the very coldest periods of the last ice age correspond with the dustiest periods in Antarctica's past, thus establishing a link between the two.

They found that dust blown south to Antarctica from the windy plains of Patagonia - and deposited in the ice periodically over 80,000 years - provides vital information about glacier activity.

It indicates that the ebb and flow of glaciers in the Chilean and Argentinian region is a rich source of information about past climates - which had not until now been fully appreciated by scientists.

During the last ice age, glaciers in Patagonia were at their biggest and released their meltwater, containing dust particles, on to barren windy plains, from where dust was blown to Antarctica.

When the glaciers retreated even slightly, their meltwater ran into lakes at the edge of the ice, which trapped the dust, so that fewer particles were blown across the ocean to Antarctica.

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