Bits of Paleo Studies

´Medieval Warm Period should simply be named Medieval Period´

There is climatology and there is paleoclimatology. And then there is something in between. You thought yesterday´s trip to the early Pleistocene was geologically speaking exactly that, a trip to yesterday? Well, in that case today we go only a … Continue reading →

Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary: did Eltanin asteroid kickstart the ice ages?

Sediment deposits along shores of Antarctica, New Zealand and Chile suggest over 2 million years ago something big must have plunged somewhere in the middle of that triangle, creating a mega tsunami with hundreds of meters high waves engulfing coastal … Continue reading →

´Fewer wildfires in North America during Little Ice Age – due to climate cooling, not population decline´

Because cooler climates also tend to have lower evaporation, they tend to be moister climates, with not only moist air, but also moister (dead) biomass – and we all know wet twigs don’t burn too well…

Largest known sea level rise took less than 350 years

Ocean level rise is known as one of the most disquieting effects of global warming, with more than three billion people living on the coast or less than 200 kilometres land inward and one tenth of the world population living … Continue reading →

Flatulent dinosaurs may have been a larger methane source than current human activities

The long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs known as sauropods that lived about 150 million years ago appear to have been rather flatulent. New calculations put the combined methane production of the hulking beasts at 520 million tonnes (Tg). As a comparison the … Continue reading →

Grand Solar Minima do bring cooling to Europe Holocene record shows

But now it’s not dry and icy five-month winters, but wet and windy springs instead. Or would you say these combine?

Carbon dioxide’s climate effects confirmed: temperatures followed rising CO2 levels during last deglaciation

There has been much speculation about what exactly caused the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. Some say the Earth’s orbital changes were the cause, others say it was an increase in atmospheric CO2. But although a … Continue reading →

2 degrees warmer climate in late Pliocene meant 12-32 meters higher sea levels

That would likely mean that also the official UN climate goal of limiting the average world temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees Celsius – a target linked to 450 ppm CO2 equivalent stabilisation scenarios (practically ambitious, theoretically weak) … Continue reading →

During MIS11 interglacial sea levels were 6-13 m higher, Nature study shows

If you are interested in sea level rise news, you have a busy week. First we learn from a Nature Climate Change publication that the Greenland ice sheet is already gone. Then earlier today two studies published in Environmental Research … Continue reading →

Can medieval volcanic eruptions have caused global cooling when tree rings don’t show?

A group of researchers led by climatologist Michael E. Mann of the Earth System Science Center of Pennsylvania State University says the dendrochronological record does not always offer the best temperature reconstruction. Apparently some trees find it hard to distinguish … Continue reading →