Scientists Say Arctic Once Was Tropical

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/may/31/053103373.html

Scientists have found what might have been the ideal ancient vacation hotspot with a 74-degree Fahrenheit average temperature, alligator ancestors and palm trees. It's smack in the middle of the Arctic.

First-of-its-kind core samples dug up from deep beneath the Arctic Ocean floor show that 55 million years ago an area near the North Pole was practically a subtropical paradise, three new studies show.

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What's troubling is that this hints that future projections for warming, several degrees over the next century, may be on the low end, said study lead author Appy Sluijs of the Institute of Environmental Biology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Also it shows that what happened 55 million years ago was proof that too much carbon dioxide - more than four times current levels - can cause global warming, said another co-author Henk Brinkhuis at Utrecht University.

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[Taverner]

1. I thought they knew this already

Antartica used to occupy Australia's spot on the globe...

[longship]

2. Because of plate techtonics?

*Not* because of global warming?

[lonecentrist]

3. Actually the area they sampled was at or near the North Pole

35 million years ago. It is a well known fact that the Earth does go through natural cycles in terms of heat and cold. There can be variation due to volcanic activity or asteroid impacts but those are usually short lived. The Earths temps are thought to have averaged in the upper 80's many times in our history. This study is a little dubious as I thought it was a well known fact already.

[Virginia Dare]

4. I believe I saw an article recently...

that there is speculation among some climatologists that the warming of the oceans will actually send us into another mini-ice age? I guess it is the same effect as putting a bunch of ice cubes into a warm drink?

Welcome to DU!

[lonecentrist]

5. Actually the Day After Tomorrow is a play on a fact

When it warms too much the fresh water in the artic flows into the North Atlantic and lowers salinity. The North Atlantic current as with all ocean currents need this balance and can shut down. Once it does and it has happened many times in the past the warm waters from the south atlantic are not drawn up the east coast into northern Europe. The result is a very cold Northern Europe in particular and a much colder Eastern North America. They took license on the immediate impacts but it could induce a mini ice-age at the very least. Some scientists think that the period from 1650-1820 was one such period where the current was disrupted. The stories of the fierce blizzards and cold in Virgina in the 1700's can attest to the fact that it was much cooler then.

[Virginia Dare]

6. That's what I thought...

I'd better invest in some snow shoes, I live in VA.

The deepest snow ever recorded here fell during that time period you speak of, late 1700's.

This was before official records were kept, but we have a pretty accurate idea of how much it was since both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington recorded it in their diaries (I believe it was about 3 feet).