Carbon released from deep ocean led to end of Ice Age
FEB 12, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028637
BBC : By studying the calcium carbonate shells left by marine organisms that lived thousands of years ago, researchers have been able to determine the acidity of the world’s oceans and, in turn, how much carbon dioxide they contained. They found that near the end of the last Ice Age, a reservoir of CO2 deep in the Southern Ocean was released into the atmosphere, which caused global temperatures to rise. Because Earth’s oceans currently absorb about 30% of anthropogenic fossil-fuel emissions, researchers say it’s important to understand the oceans’ role in the carbon cycle and how global warming could affect their ability to act as carbon sinks.
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
