Author Topic: Biology uncovers prehistoric Antarctic seaway  (Read 2530 times)

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Offline Godot showed up

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Biology uncovers prehistoric Antarctic seaway
« on: September 01, 2010, 02:12:28 PM »


http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/09/biology_sheds_new_light_on_ant_1.html


Quote

Scientists have found compelling evidence that a water channel flowed through the West Antarctic ice sheet just 125,000 years ago. The discovery of the prehistoric seaway sheds new light on the stability of the third largest ice mass on the planet which will have a huge impact on global sea levels if it melts.

The research, published in the journal Global Change Biology is the most comprehensive study of its kind. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) pieced together all available data on bryozoan abundance and diversity across Antarctica from the mid nineteenth century to the present. The researchers, part of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML), initially set out to investigate the origins of the diverse marine fauna living in Western Antarctica. But when comparing two isolated seas they found something puzzling. “When we sampled the Weddell and Ross seas we found incredibly similar fauna,” says David Barnes, marine ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey who led the research team. The two seas are only 1,500 miles apart. But they are separated by the West Antarctic ice sheet, a vast impenetrable block of ice two kilometres deep in its thickest point.



Wow. Those neanderthals must have been pumping some serious C02 into the atmosphere from their cookfires.

Offline JohnnyReb

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Re: Biology uncovers prehistoric Antarctic seaway
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2010, 05:13:26 PM »

http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/09/biology_sheds_new_light_on_ant_1.html



Wow. Those neanderthals must have been pumping some serious C02 into the atmosphere from their cookfires.


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