Posted on 04/01/2020 9:48:52 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Some 90 million years ago, a temperate rainforest grew near the South Pole. Scientists recovered fossil traces of the ancient rainforest from seafloor sediment cores collected near West Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier.
Seismic data suggested the sediment layer was unique, but researchers weren't expecting to find the remnants of a Cretaceous forest.
"The finding of this well preserved 'forest soil' layer was actually a lucky dip," researcher Ulrich Salzmann, professor of palaeoecology at the University of Northumbria in Britain, told UPI. "We did not know of the existence of this layer before."
Among the sediment layers, Salzmann and his research partners found roots, pollen, spores and the remains of flowering plants. Scientists were able to use the various plant remains to piece together a fuller picture of what exactly Antarctica's ancient forest looked like.
"This was a swampy forest, dominated by needle-leaved conifer trees with many ferns. The forest was a temperate -- not a tropical -- rainforest, similar to the forests found today in New Zealand," Salzmann said. "Summer temperatures averaged 19 degrees Celsius and water temperatures in rivers and swamps reached up to 20 degrees. This was despite a four-month polar night, meaning for a third of every year there was no life-giving sunlight at all."
Scientists estimate the polar rainforest persisted until the Oligocene epoch, before fragmenting some 20 million years ago. Pockets of rainforest likely remained viable until 10 million years ago.
Antarctica and the South Pole has moved a bit over the last 90 million years, but tectonic shifts don't account for the emergence and disappearance of the ancient Antarctic forest. The polar forest was made possible by climate change.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
Oil!
Let’s dig some up and see how it burns. BRING BACK PANGEA NOW!
Heheheh...
I can feel the spittle coming from the lips of Leftists who read that and I say to them “Hey, for all we know, that warmer temperature might be the ideal and natural temperature for this planet!”
Hahahahaha...like Carlin's "Hand me that piano" that isn't something you hear every day!
The forest wasn’t where it is now in space
“The mid-Cretaceous period was one of the warmest periods in Earth’s history. The atmosphere was flooded with CO2 and sea levels were more than 500 feet higher than they are today. Sea surface temperatures in the tropics were as high as 95 degrees Fahrenheit.”
“The polar forest was made possible by climate change.” Have the dug up the ancient SUVs that were responsible yet?
Drill, Baby Drill!
More like COAL and maybe some NATURAL GAS! Woody materials are Type III kerogens and they mostly produce natural gas.
I’m getting the damn T-shirt!
-—Have the dug up the ancient SUVs that were responsible yet?——
Not yet, just a couple hundred school buses...
How was this possible without SUV's?
Made possible by climate change? From the UPI. I thought they were dead.
It’s time some comedian turned Climate Change into a cartoon character. I can’t wait to see what else Climate Change may be responsible for.
errr….ummm….it's GLOBAL WARMING!!!!
No...ahhh, it's CLIMATE CHANGE!!!!
How dare the earth's climate, our environment change!?!?
We demand the government make the climate static!
I’ll take it!
I am not sure there is much oil there. Maybe we should strip mine the coal and peat moss instead.
They are looking for volunteers to be roughnecks.
Let me know when they find one of these.
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