Science Daily


Read science articles on the ice age, glaciation and climatology. Discover the connection between ice ages and global warming.
Updated: 9 min 45 sec ago
Antarctic sea ice may be a source of mercury in southern ocean fish and birds
New research has found methylmercury -- a potent neurotoxin - in sea ice in the Southern Ocean. The results are the first to show that sea-ice bacteria can change mercury into methylmercury, a more toxic form that can contaminate the marine environment, including fish and birds.
Researchers pinpoint abrupt onset of modern day Indian Ocean monsoon system
A new study by an international team of scientists reveals the exact timing of the onset of the modern monsoon pattern in the Maldives 12.9 million years ago, and its connection to past climate changes and coral reefs in the region. The analysis of sediment cores provides direct physical evidence of the environmental conditions that sparked the monsoon conditions that exist today around the low-lying island nation and the Indian subcontinent.
Monsoon intensity enhanced by heat captured by desert dust
Variations in the ability of sand particles kicked into the atmosphere from deserts in the Middle East to absorb heat can change the intensity of the Indian Summer Monsoon, according to new research.
Historical records miss a fifth of global warming: NASA
A new NASA-led study finds that almost one-fifth of the global warming that has occurred in the past 150 years has been missed by historical records due to quirks in how global temperatures were recorded. The study explains why projections of future climate based solely on historical records estimate lower rates of warming than predictions from climate models.
We're lucky climate change didn't happen sooner
There is some consolation in how the fossil fuel-induced climatic changes we increasingly experience through droughts and storm surges are playing out. It could have happened sooner, and therefore already have been much worse.
Protecting ice memory
The project’s first mission to protect the world’s ice memory will be launched in France on 15 August, in the Mont Blanc massif. Researchers from the CNRS, the IRD and the Université Grenoble Alpes will be extracting ice samples from the Col du Dôme, ultimately for storage in Antarctica.
Groundwater discharge to upper Colorado River Basin varies in response to drought
Groundwater discharge that flows into the Upper Colorado River Basin varies in response to drought, which is likely due to aquifer systems that contain relatively young groundwater, according to a new study.
A recent pause in Antarctic Peninsula warming
The rapid warming of the Antarctic Peninsula, which occurred from the early-1950s to the late 1990s, has paused. Stabilization of the ozone hole along with natural climate variability were significant in bringing about the change. Together these influences have now caused the peninsula to enter a temporary cooling phase. Temperatures remain higher than measured during the middle of the 20th Century and glacial retreat is still taking place.
Solving the mesopotamia timeline puzzle with tree-rings and radiocarbon research
Tree-ring dating and radiocarbon research has established an absolute timeline for the archaeological, historical and environmental record in Mesopotamia from the early second millennium B.C.
2016 climate trends continue to break records
Two key climate change indicators -- global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent -- have broken numerous records through the first half of 2016, according to NASA analyses of ground-based observations and satellite data.
NASA science flights target melting Arctic Sea ice
This summer, with sea ice across the Arctic Ocean shrinking to below-average levels, a NASA airborne survey of polar ice just completed its first flights. Its target: aquamarine pools of melt water on the ice surface that may be accelerating the overall sea ice retreat.
Climate research: How meltwater from the ice sheets disturbed the climate 10,000 years ago
How will the melting of ice in Greenland affect our climate? In order to gain an idea how that process might look like, researchers have taken a look into the past. In the early Holocene period -- approximately 11,700 to 8,000 years ago -- a large ice sheet melted in North America. By analyzing dripstones in caves (speleothems) and using computer simulations, an international team reconstructed the consequences.
Long-awaited breakthrough in the reconstruction of warm climate phases
Scientists have overcome a seeming weakness of global climate models. They had previously not been able to simulate the extreme warm period of the Eocene.
Earth's early atmosphere: Rock salt holds the key to a paradigm shift
Scientists have made a scientific breakthrough by measuring the oxygen content of Earth's ancient atmosphere. They discovered that gases trapped by halite (rock salt) during crystallization may contain atmospheric gases, among them oxygen.
Ocean warming primary cause of Antarctic Peninsula glacier retreat
A new study has found for the first time that ocean warming is the primary cause of retreat of glaciers on the western Antarctic Peninsula. The Peninsula is one of the largest current contributors to sea-level rise and this new finding will enable researchers to make better predictions of ice loss from this region.
Record-breaking volcanic kettle on Iceland explored
The Bardarbunga eruption on Iceland has broken many records. The event in 2014 was the strongest in Europe since more than 240 years. The hole it left behind is the biggest caldera formation ever observed.
Technological and cultural innovations amongst early humans not sparked by climate change
Environmental records obtained from archaeological sites in South Africa's southern Cape suggest climate may not have been directly linked to cultural and technological innovations of Middle Stone Age humans in southern Africa after all.
Ice algae: The engine of life in the central Arctic Ocean
Algae that live in and under the sea ice play a much greater role for the Arctic food web than previously assumed. In a new study, biologists show that not only animals that live directly under the ice thrive on carbon produced by so-called ice algae.
Scientists find evidence for climate change in satellite cloud record
Scientists have found that changes in cloud patterns during the last three decades match those predicted by climate model simulations. These cloud changes are likely to have had a warming effect on the planet.
Climate tipping points: What do they mean for society?
The phrase "tipping point" passed its own tipping point and caught fire after author Malcolm Gladwell's so-named 2000 book. It's now frequently used in discussions about climate change, but what are "climate tipping points"? And what do they mean for society and the economy? Scientists tackle the terminology and outline a strategy for investigating the consequences of climate tipping points in a new study.