One of the great things about working here is that every Sunday evening one of the scientists doing research presents an overview of his or her project. Today's lecture was about a drilling project. Basically they are drilling core samples from the sea floor looking for what the CO2 levels where 15-30 million years ago. during this time frame Antarctica went from a temperate to a frozen climate. By studying this it can help look at what current CO2 levels may hold in store for our future climate change.
Now for the spiffy facts. At one time the sea temperature here was around 67 degrees F.
Most people assume that Antarctica drifted south when the continents broke up. Interestingly Antarctica has been in it's current position for millions of years and the other continents broke away and drifted northward.
The Northern hemisphere's dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice such as what's happening around the pole and Greenland aren't likely to be repeated on the Antarctic ice sheets because of how cold it is. We are in such a deep freeze here that raising the temperature at the pole by 5 degrees would be the equivalent of trying to defrost a freezer that's at 0 by warming it up to 10.
Neat stuff!
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3 comments:
Wow, So much for those school days science class we took...
I have always loved how everything we know and what we, in our infancy as a species, think we understand can all be altered by one little experiment...
Greetings from Fl. It appears that you are settling in nicely, I told you that anything above 0 wasn't bad as long as the wind is not whipping around. Have you been assigned a job yet, if so what and how long before you can go on an expedition? How are the living accomodations - good roommate? Keep us posted. Shari
Just had time to read all this....I try and only log on to the home computer on weekends - sounds like quite an adventure so far. How many pictures have you taken, and where are the penguins? We golfed Friday - it was hot! - in the 80's - remember that? looking forward to hearing more!
Dawn
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