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Article: Ice sample reveals climate warning; ANTARCTICA
- Article from:
- The Press
- Article date:
- October 10, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Press. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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A sudden warming in Antarctica 16 million years ago has worrying
implications for global climate change now, scientists say.
A multinational team of scientists involved in the Andrill
drilling project, including New Zealanders, made the discovery by
studying a sediment core retrieved from the McMurdo Sound region in
2007.
An abundance of plant life in part of the core indicated a
relatively ice-free period in the middle miocene period 15.7 million
years ago, when freshwater algae flourished in ponds, tundra grew on
the coast and small trees grew in warmer areas.
Land temperatures may have even exceeded 10 degrees Celsius.
Victoria University associate professor Mike Hannah, who co- ...