Posted on 02/12/2015 5:22:35 PM PST by NormsRevenge
A massive outpouring of carbon dioxide from the deep ocean may have helped end the last ice age, scientists report today.
There is strong evidence that changes in Earth's orbit set the pace of the planet's ice ages, by altering how much sunlight reaches the Northern Hemisphere. ..
Now, scientists have documented a source for the massive exhalations of potent climate-altering gas seen at the end of the last ice age, about 16,000 years ago. ...
"The oceans are leaking carbon dioxide to the atmosphere," said study co-author Gavin Foster from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.
The researchers, led by Miguel Angel Martínez-Botíz of Britains National Oceanography Center in Southampton, looked at ice-age seafloor sediments in two regions where ocean currents force deep- ocean water to the surface. They examined the shells of single-celled microbes called foraminifera, which preserve the ratio of chemicals in seawater as they grow. A certain chemical ratio involving boron is a proxy for the carbon dioxide concentration in seawater thousands of years ago, when the microbes lived and died.
The samples tested in the study come from two seafloor drilling sites. One is located in the southern Atlantic Ocean, midway between South America and Africa, and the other is offshore Ecuador on the underwater Carnegie Ridge.
Very high concentrations of dissolved carbon dioxide suddenly appeared in surface waters of the southern Atlantic Ocean and the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean at the end of the last ice age, the researchers said today (Feb. 11) in the journal Nature. Surface waters in both regions show a dramatic rise in dissolved carbon dioxide levels at the same time as the recorded rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide in ice cores, the researchers report.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
anyone subscribe to the Big Burp theory?
God was messing around one day, burped.. and waa laaa..
Universe haPPens..
burp or fart?
But then, what started the ice age?
Have they considered any other factors which may have affected temperature?
Changes in the earth’s orbit combined with the carbon sink provided by the emergence of the Himalayan mountains combined with the Monsoons. We’re at a historical low in CO2 in the atmosphere.
Interesting - thanks for posting.
Just a few weeks ago I read that the ocean floor has highly predictable earth tremors that coincide each year with our orbit around the sun.
Our orbit is slightly elliptical, not circular, so in certain months the whole planet is closer to the sun, and, in other months, we are further away.
The authors of that article also speculated that those tremors might release CO2 from the Earth’s crust, or change ocean currents, or cause landslides that expose carbon rich sediments.
You can find tha page rapidly in ... the entire book ... at http://sunsetridgemsbiology.wikispaces.com/file/view/Darwins+Ghost.pdf
Go for it.
Wow, imagine that. Man was using stone tools and yet he caused global warming.
Scientific studies like this are in abundance and yet the Left insist that the evidence is obvious and irrefutable that mans use of fossil fuels is causing global warming.
This study also suggest that the ecosystem is self-regulating. There was a huge influx of carbon dioxide and the ecosystem took advantage of the increased nutrient level to have a growth spurt.
Just more proof that the green movement is a political tool of the Left and has nothing to do with the environment.
Big Burps? Too many prehistoric Burritos, perhaps?
Miocene whales with gas?
Al Gore cut a big one?
There was one absolute blatant lie in the article. It said the ice cores showed increased CO2 and then increased temperatures. It is actually the reverse. Temperature increased and then CO2 increased. Anyone can verify this by looking up the research on the Vostok Ice Cores.
They were not mistaken nor did they make an error. They lied in an attempt to give support to AGW theory. The ocean is the largest repository of unbound CO2. The solubility of CO2 is a function of the temperature of the ocean. When the temperature increase the solubility decreases and thus increased CO2 levels.
The article lies.
The ice age began when the Earth was “towed” by well-meaning aliens from its former position as a moon of Saturn into its present orbit.
I completely agree. A rise in water temperature brings CO2 out of solution. It was orbital mechanics which caused a rise in atmospheric temperatures, melting ice and a rise in CO2 as the oceans warmed. They need to explain how a glacially-cold ocean releases CO2 out of solution. It doesn’t. It traps CO2.
Bad science.
And in numbers just a few percent of today's human population, too!
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