Methane Emissions Caused by Warming 40,000 Years Ago

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

40,000 years ago rapid warming led to an increase in methane concentration. The culprit for this increase has now been identified. Mainly wetlands in high northern latitudes caused the methane increase, as discovered by a research team from the University of Bern and the German Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association. This result refutes an alternative theory discussed amongst experts, the so-called “clathrate gun hypothesis.” The latter assumed that large amounts of methane were released from the ocean sediment and led to higher atmospheric methane concentrations and thus to rapid climate warming.

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Images of Eath Distorted by Earthquakes

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

Earthquakes are often imagined as opening up large gaps in the land, sinking islands and the such. It is much harder in real life to see this change. NASA has recently released the first ever airborne radar images of the deformation in Earth’s surface caused by a major earthquake — the magnitude 7.2 temblor that rocked Mexico’s state of Baja California and parts of the American Southwest on April 4, 2010. The data reveal that in the area studied, the quake moved the Calexico, Calif., region in a downward and southerly direction up to 31 inches.

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Storm on an Exoplanet

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

An atmospheric storm is detected for the first time on an exoplanet. The technique used to detect the storm paves the way for understanding conditions on other worlds. The storm raging on HD 209458b whips around at speeds up to 6,200 m.p.h.

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Oceanic Temperatures and Climate Effects

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

The study of  climates from the past and oceanic temperatures can give clues as to how future climate changes will unfold. An international team of researchers, led by the members of the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), has  studied  the evolution of Northern Pacific and Southern Atlantic sea surface temperatures, dating from the Pliocene Era; some 3.65 million years ago. The results indicate that the regions closer to the poles of both oceans have played a fundamental role in climate evolution in the tropics.

Some High Points:

  • During the Pliocene epoch, the global average temperature was 5-7°F higher than today with global sea levels being about 80 feet higher and with a reduced northern hemisphere ice sheet. Towards he end of the era global cooling occurred.
  • A permanent El Niño state existed in the early mid Pliocene, warmer temperature in the eastern equatorial Pacific increased a water vapor greenhouse effect and reduced the area covered by highly reflective stratus clouds thus decreasing the albedo of the planet.
  • The ambient water temperature in which the organisms dwelt can be estimated from ratio of their unsaturated alkenones (C37-C39).
  • The formation of an Arctic ice cap was started as indicated by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean beds. Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch. The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas.

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