Arctic Coring EXpedition - ACEX
Posted on 09/07/2004 8:35:06 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) - The North Pole once had a balmy, sub-tropical sea because of extreme global warming, according to European scientists who have carried out the world's deepest drilling into ancient sediment on the far northern seabed.
Cores retrieved from up to 430 metres (1,397 feet) below the seafloor in waters 1,300 metres (4,550 feet) deep show that, for a brief period which occurred around 55 million years ago, the Arctic Ocean was around 20 C (68 F), compared with today's typical average temperature of minus 1.5 C (29.3 F), they said on Tuesday.
"It occurred during a period called the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum, which was already known as a warm period," Andy Kingdon of the British Geological Survey (BGS) told AFP.
"What no-one expected was how much warmer it really was. That is a huge surprise."
The BGS joined other scientific agencies in a 12.5-million-dollar (10.40-million-euro) initiative called the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD).
Under it, a Swedish-flagged, Norwegian-operated drillship ventured to within 238 kilometers (148 miles) close to the North Pole, protected by a Russian and a Swedish icebreaker, which broke up sea ice around the vessel as it drilled into the sediment.
The evidence of big climate change comes in the form of fossilised marine plants and animals which died out en masse within a relatively short time because they could not cope with the surge in temperatures.
The cores also revealed a band of fossilised extinct algae that only lived in sub-tropical conditions.
"The early history of the Arctic basin will be re-evaluated based on the scientific results collected on this expedition," one of the mission's chief scientists, Jan Backman, a professor at Stockholm University, said.
The expedition returns to Tromso, Norway on September 14 and its members will meet in Bremen, Germany, in November to assess the results.
Although the data is only preliminary, the scientists "are absolutely confident" in their conclusion about the massive temperature swing, said Kingdon.
"This is convincing proof that global warming has a planetary-wide effect, having a major impact on locations even as distant as the North Pole."
As for what have caused the big warming during this period, two theories are being aired, both based on the greenhouse principle in which gases were released into the atmosphere, trapping the Sun's heat.
One is that gigantic volanic eruptions disgorged billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air; the other is that frozen methane, held under layers of seabed sediment, was released and melted, also causing a runaway greenhouse effect.
How about this theory: The sun's output varies over time. Therefore creating ice ages and warm periods...
The dinosaurs must have all had SUVs...
As we all know, Bush, Cheney and Halliburton all went back in time and burned fossil fuels to cause this warming, just because they wanted to thumb their noses at the yet to be proposed Kyoto Treaty.
It's Bush's Fault!!!!!
Sounds like proof of the HAB theory to me !
The Earth wobbles in it's rotation and revolution around the sun. Every spinning body not perfectly balanced will wobble.
Because he didn't sign Kyoto.
Must be all of those Texas SUVs.
"How about this theory: The sun's output varies over time. Therefore creating ice ages and warm periods..."
Bump!
What part did continental drift play?
I believe that 55 million years ago, that location could have been thousands of miles away from the pole.
We've known for donkey years about continental drift. Haven't these guys kept up with the times?
At least 90 degrees.
I don't usually "Laugh out Loud" when I read. LOL!
The earth has been cooling for about the past 50 million years. One theory is that rapid tectonic uplift of the Himalayan Plateau has exposed silicate rocks to the atmosphere at a high rate, absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere, and reducing 'greenhouse' absorption of outgoing radiation.
The results of this cooling trend have been especially noticeable over the past 2 million years or so, which have experienced the regular growth and decay of polar ice sheets. It's been relatively cool and unstable over this recent period.
We are lucky to be as warm as we are at this time. Another glacial interval, which might be expected to be initiated at any time, would devastate life on earth...but that's nature.
I believe you have a point, but their claim about the fossil record makes it too sudden for continental drift to be the major cause.
But golly gee this pretty much proves that Global Warming as a human caused effect is a environmental extremist fantasy.
That can't possibly be. Mr. Sun does not have anything to do with capitalism and industrial development in the West. Therefore it can't be the cause of global warming.
The resulting long term climatic cycle resulting from this wobbling is called the Milankovitch Cycle
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