[Brian328i]

Scientists from the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory found a new proxy for ocean circulation, using neodymium isotopes in a deep sea core to study climate change history.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

This should be good news because it would mean that there is not a tipping point that will lead to a sudden shift in ocean circulation and rapid climate change.

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

...rare earth element neodymium (Nd), that they believe reveals the progression of ancient ocean circulation changes more unequivocally than did carbon isotope ratios used to study the chronology of these ancient climate changes previously. The Nd markers provided evidence that changes in the ocean’s thermohaline circulation rate came later than both carbon budget shifts and changes in ice sheet volume at the start and end of the last ice age. In other words, the ocean’s "conveyor belt" system did not trigger the changing conditions of cold and ice on the surface of Earth but rather responded to them... Ice ages are driven by changes in the amount of heat that arrives at the poles from the sun. The carbon cycle shifts were likely caused by the decline of plant life on the planet’s surface because of the cold and the advancing ice sheets. The ocean’s circulation system amplifies the effect of the sun’s heat through warmth brought to high latitudes by the Gulf Stream, whose saltiness affects how fast it sinks and begins the deep water arm of the global ocean "conveyor belt" circulation back to the South.

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