{"id":131720,"date":"2024-09-10T16:40:15","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T16:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/10\/antarctica-was-not-always-frozen-and-this-is-why-that-changed\/"},"modified":"2024-09-10T16:40:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T16:40:15","slug":"antarctica-was-not-always-frozen-and-this-is-why-that-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/10\/antarctica-was-not-always-frozen-and-this-is-why-that-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Antarctica Was Not Always Frozen And This Is Why That Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Antarctica<\/div>


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Antarctica, now a vast frozen continent, was not always covered in ice. Around 34 million years ago, during the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, the continent was ice-free. According to Eric Wolff, a paleoclimatologist from the University of Cambridge, Antarctica resembled northern Canada with tundra and coniferous forests before it froze. The shift to ice began due to a drop in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and the separation of South America from Antarctica, which opened the Drake Passage and isolated the continent, causing it to cool.<\/p>\n

The Role of Carbon Dioxide<\/h2>\n

The drop in CO2 levels played a crucial role in freezing Antarctica. Tina van de Flierdt, a geochemist at Imperial College London, explains that the CO2 levels were significantly higher, around 1,000 to 2,000 parts per million 50 million years ago, according to a Live Science report<\/a>. As CO2 levels decreased, global temperatures dropped, allowing ice sheets to form. This cooling was essential for the transition to the frozen state we see today.<\/p>\n

Impact of Tectonic Movements<\/h2>\n

Alongside the CO2 drop, the separation of South America from Antarctica triggered changes in the continent’s climate. The formation of the Drake Passage allowed a circumpolar current to develop, preventing warm air from reaching Antarctica. This contributed to the continent’s cooling, as explained by Eric Wolff.<\/p>\n

Oxygen Isotopes and Ice Formation<\/h2>\n

Scientists study<\/a> oxygen isotopes in marine sediments to track Antarctica’s ice formation. By analysing the ratio of oxygen-16 to oxygen-18, they can estimate when ice sheets first appeared on the continent. This method provides insight into how Earth’s climate changed millions of years ago.
Will Antarctica Be Ice-Free Again?<\/p>\n

Tina van de Flierdt reportedly warns that although the complete melting of Antarctica’s ice is unlikely, we should strive to limit the current ice loss caused by human activity.<\/p>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antarctica, now a vast frozen continent, was not always covered in ice. Around 34 million years ago, during the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, the continent was ice-free. According to Eric Wolff, a paleoclimatologist from the University of Cambridge, Antarctica resembled northern Canada with tundra and coniferous forests before it froze. The shift to ice began due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.gadgets360cdn.com\/large\/Antarctica_1725888430755.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[37596,105861,105864,1417,5418,105863,51011,105865,105862],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131722,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131720\/revisions\/131722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}