A changing climate triggers a sudden shift in ocean circulation, creating weather havoc and plunging Earth into an abrupt new Ice Age.
A changing climate triggers a sudden shift in ocean circulation, creating weather havoc and plunging Earth into an abrupt new Ice Age.
It sounds like the basis for a Hollywood blockbuster - the 2004 science fiction disaster film “The Day After Tomorrow,” has similar plot lines – but it’s actually a scenario that played out multiple times during the last Ice Age, which ended more than 11,000 years ago.
Just published research from multiple ice cores collected across Greenland with data spanning up to 120,000 years provides new understanding of these abrupt events, how they unfold and what that might mean for the future.
The events, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger events, represent “tipping points” in Earth’s climate – situations in which the climate crosses a threshold that leads to sudden and large-scale change, said the study’s lead author, Christo Buizert, an associate professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University.
Read more at Oregon State University
Photo Credit: jplenio via Pixabay
