Heads Up – Coming: AWI Climate Reconstruction 400,000 to 4 Million Years Ago

The Polarstern ice breaker of the government-funded Alfred Wegener Institute is now returning from a 7-month long expedition to the Antarctic, putting 37,000 nautical miles behind it. A total of 150 scientists from 15 countries have taken part in the Antarctic research expedition. here

Onboard in the ship’s cargo bays are 1000 meters of sediment cores, weighing 11 tonnes in total. These cores will now allow the researchers to extract climate information for the period from 400,000 to 4 million years ago.

There’s already considerable knowlege going back about 600,000 years.

But beyond that it starts to get awfully fuzzy. We do know that it has been trending colder over the last 5 million years.

The period from 400 thousand to 4 million years back is not well-researched, and so the sediment cores will certainly deliver key information on how the climate developed in leading up to the periodic ice ages, clues about ice behaviour, and ocean currents. Surely it’ll take some time to extract the data and digest them. We’re certainly looking forward to the first results.

Normally the AWI provides a translation of their press releases in English. I expect one will be out shortly.

One response to “Heads Up – Coming: AWI Climate Reconstruction 400,000 to 4 Million Years Ago”

  1. Freddie

    Take the 450k temp & CO2 graph and try to put the 2 degrees C limit over it. See if it is possible to cover 10% of the time?? My guess is that nature does not adhere to the negotiatet figures??

    Never underestimate the power of taxation and regulation 😉 I agree with you, though. -PG

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. More information at our Data Privacy Policy

Close