Tracking ancient ocean 'burps'

[Wien Ee]

Sediment study links rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide at end of last ice age to abrupt releases from ocean.


Oceanographers and climatologists speculate that large amounts of carbon dioxide entered the atmosphere from reservoirs in the deep ocean at the end of the last ice age, which occurred about 19,000 years ago. What scientists have been trying to explain is the rise in atmospheric CO2 from 180 to 265 ppm accompanied by a puzzling 35% drop in the gas's radiocarbon (14C) content.


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[Pooh]

De studie is geplaatst in Science.


http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1138679v1


Voor een pdf, mijn email is mijn voor en achternaam aan elkaar, bij yahoo


Plotten van de data levert dit op:

14C 363 keer bekeken

Het artikel is aardig correct maar het commentaar hier slaat nergens op.


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/200...a-csh051107.php

Exactly what caused the upwelling is not clear, but many scientists believe the world was already undergoing a natural warming cycle, possibly due to a slight periodic change in earth's orbit. This suddenly ended the last Ice Age, in turn changing ocean currents and wind patterns. The hypothesis favored by paper's authors is that sudden disintegration of northern ice sheets during this initial warming slowed or halted deep Atlantic Ocean circulation. This in turn warmed the Antarctic, causing massive retreats of sea ice and allowing deep Antarctic waters to surface. Thus, it is possible that the signal detected in the Pacific ultimately originated on the other side of the world.


"Once the CO2 started rising, it probably helped the warming process along—but exactly how much, we can't say," said Robert Anderson, a Lamont-Doherty expert in ocean circulation who was not involved in the study. "And there is still huge uncertainty as to how the oceans will respond to current warming." Anderson says the study should be a wake-up call to the scientific community to expand studies of the oceans' relationship to climate change.

Zo werkt de diepzee niet. Er is één en ander voor nodig om de stratificatie te doorbreken.