Science Daily
 
   
  
    Read science articles on the ice age, glaciation and climatology. Discover the connection between ice ages and global warming.  
  
  
    Updated: 26 min 40 sec ago  
Paleoclimate study of precipitation and sea ice in Arctic Alaska
    A new study in Arctic Alaska has investigated sea ice dynamics and their impact on circulation and precipitation patterns in Arctic Alaska on a long-term basis.  
Climate and carbon cycle trends of the past 50 million years reconciled
    Oceanographers fully reconciled climate and carbon cycle trends of the past 50 million years -- solving a controversy debated in the scientific literature for decades.  
Geoscientists reconstruct 6.5 million years of sea level stands in the Western Mediterranean
    The geological features in caves from Mallorca provide scientific insights for understanding modern-day sea level changes.  
Rocks show Mars once felt like Iceland
    A comparison of chemical and climate weathering of sedimentary rock in Mars' Gale Crater indicate the region's mean temperature billions of years ago was akin to current conditions on Iceland.  
Antarctica: The ocean cools at the surface but warms up at depth
    Scientists have concluded that the slight cooling observed at the surface of the Southern Ocean hides a rapid and marked warming of the waters, to a depth of up to 800 meters. These results were obtained thanks to unique data acquired over the past 25 years.  
Scientists discover how the potentially oldest coral reefs in the Mediterranean developed
    A new study brings unprecedented insights into the environmental constraints and climatic events that controlled the formation of the potentially oldest coral reefs in the Mediterranean.  
2020 tied for warmest year on record, NASA analysis shows
    Earth's global average surface temperature in 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record, according to an analysis by NASA.  
Greenland melting likely increased by bacteria in sediment
    Bacteria are likely triggering greater melting on the Greenland ice sheet, possibly increasing the island's contribution to sea-level rise, according to scientists. That's because the microbes cause sunlight-absorbing sediment to clump together and accumulate in the meltwater streams, according to new study. The findings can be incorporated in climate models, leading to more accurate predictions of melting, scientists say.  
Accounting for the gaps in ancient food webs
    Studying ancient food webs can help scientists reconstruct communities of species, many long extinct, and even use those insights to figure out how modern-day communities might change in the future. There's just one problem: only some species left enough of a trace for scientists to find eons later, leaving large gaps in the fossil record -- and researchers' ability to piece together the food webs from the past.  
Wetland methane cycling increased during ancient global warming event
    Wetland methane cycling increased during a rapid global warming event 56 million years ago and could foreshadow changes the methane cycle will experience in the future, according to new research.  
Northern lakes at risk of losing ice cover permanently, impacting drinking water
    Close to 5,700 lakes in the Northern Hemisphere may permanently lose ice cover this century, 179 of them in the next decade, at current greenhouse gas emissions, despite a possible polar vortex this year, researchers have found. Those lakes include large bays in some of the deepest of the Great Lakes, such as Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, which could permanently become ice free by 2055.  
Red and green snow algae increase snowmelt in the Antarctic Peninsula
    Red and green algae that grow on snow in the Antarctic Peninsula cause significant extra snowmelt on par with melt from dust on snow in the Rocky Mountains, according to a first-of-its-kind scientific research study. This could have serious impacts on regional climate, snow and ice melt, freshwater availability and ecosystems, yet is not accounted for in current global climate models.  
Melting icebergs key to sequence of an ice age
    Scientists claim to have found the 'missing link' in the process that leads to an ice age on Earth.  
A bucket of water can reveal climate change impacts on marine life in the Arctic
    We know very little about marine life in the Arctic. Now researchers are trying to change that. They have shown that a simple water sample makes it possible to monitor the presence, migration patterns and genetic diversity of bowhead whales in an otherwise hard-to-reach area. The method can be used to understand how climate changes and human activities impact life in the oceans.  
New study of Earth's crust shows global growth spurt three billion years ago
    Researchers have used ancient crystals from eroded rocks found in stream sediments in Greenland to successfully test the theory that portions of Earth's ancient crust acted as 'seeds' from which later generations of crust grew.  
Number of people suffering extreme droughts will double
    A global research effort offers the first worldwide view of how climate change could affect water availability and drought severity in the decades to come. By the late 21st century, global land area and population facing extreme droughts could more than double -- increasing from 3% during 1976-2005 to 7%-8%, according to a professor of civil and environmental engineering.  
Will global warming bring a change in the winds? Dust from the deep sea provides a clue
    Climate researchers describe a new method of tracking the ancient history of the westerly winds--a proxy for what we may experience in a future warming world.  
The new face of the Antarctic
    In the future, the Antarctic could become a greener place and be colonized by new species. At the same time, some species will likely disappear.  
Drought of the century in the Middle Ages -- with parallels to climate change today?
    The transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age was apparently accompanied by severe droughts between 1302 and 1307 in Europe. Researchers write that the 1302-07 weather patterns display similarities to the 2018 weather anomaly, in which continental Europe experienced exceptional heat and drought.  
New tool for reconstructing ancient sea ice to study climate change
    A previously problematic molecule turns out to be a reliable proxy for reconstructing sea ice, a new study by Brown University researchers shows.  
