Post by Sharon Faulkner on Sept 27, 2007 21:26:17 GMT -5
Borneo Ice Cores In Underground Caves Give Clues To Climate Change
26 September 2007
Earth Science
Growing inside the caves of the tropical Pacific island of Borneo are some of the keys to understanding how the Earth's climate suddenly changed - several times - over the last 25,000 years. By analyzing stalagmites, the pilar-like rock formations that stem from the ground in caves, they were able to produce a high-resolution and continuous record of the climate over this equatorial rainforest.
The research team collected stalagmites from the Gunung Buda cave system in Borneo in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Analyzing three stalagmites from two separate caves allowed the pair to create a near-continuous record of the climate from 25,000 years ago to the present. While this study is not the first to use stalagmites to examine climate over this time period, it is the first to do so in the tropical Pacific. Typically, in these types of studies, only one stalagmite is analyzed, but Partin and Cobb compared their three stalagmite records to isolate shared climate-related signals.
tinyurl.com/ywc6dy
26 September 2007
Earth Science
Growing inside the caves of the tropical Pacific island of Borneo are some of the keys to understanding how the Earth's climate suddenly changed - several times - over the last 25,000 years. By analyzing stalagmites, the pilar-like rock formations that stem from the ground in caves, they were able to produce a high-resolution and continuous record of the climate over this equatorial rainforest.
The research team collected stalagmites from the Gunung Buda cave system in Borneo in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Analyzing three stalagmites from two separate caves allowed the pair to create a near-continuous record of the climate from 25,000 years ago to the present. While this study is not the first to use stalagmites to examine climate over this time period, it is the first to do so in the tropical Pacific. Typically, in these types of studies, only one stalagmite is analyzed, but Partin and Cobb compared their three stalagmite records to isolate shared climate-related signals.
tinyurl.com/ywc6dy