| inbluevt | Date: Tuesday, 2013/05/14, 10:19 AM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
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The future of a globally warmed world has been revealed in a remote meteorite crater in Siberia, where lake sediments recorded the strikingly balmy climate of the Arctic during the last period when greenhouse gas levels were as high as today.
Unchecked burning of fossil fuels has driven carbon dioxide to levels not seen for 3m years when, the
sediments show, temperatures were 8C higher than today, lush forests
covered the tundra and sea levels were up to 40m higher than today.
"It's like deja vu," said Prof Julie Brigham-Grette, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who led the new research analysing a core of sediment to see what temperatures in the region were between 3.6 and 2.2m years ago. "We have seen these warm periods before. Many people now
agree this is where we are heading."
"It shows a huge warming – unprecedented in human history," said Prof Scott Elias, at Royal
Holloway University of London, and not involved in the work. "It is a frightening experiment we are conducting with our climate.
"The sediments have been slowly settling in Lake El'gygytgyn since it was formed 3.6m years ago, when a kilometre-wide meteorite blasted a crater 100km north of the Arctic circle. Unlike most places so far north, the region was never eroded by glaciers so a continuous record of the
climate has lain undisturbed ever since. "It's a phenomenal record,"
said Prof Peter Sammonds, at University College London. "It is also an
incredible achievement [the study's work], given the remoteness of the
lake." Sixteen shipping containers of equipment had to be hauled 90km
over snow by bulldozers from the nearest ice road, used by gold miners.
Read full story
Message edited by inbluevt - Tuesday, 2013/05/14, 10:22 AM |
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