CL
Climate: Past, Present & Future

Climate of the Past

Why would anyone care about an ‘Anthropocene’?

November 15, 2023
Welcome to the Anthropocene By: Robyn Woolston
Welcome to the Anthropocene By: Robyn Woolston

– A debate among scientists and its impact on us The epoch of humans (and their obvious intervention in the Earth system) In order to understand what the ‘Anthropocene’ means for us, we need to define first what it actually is. This poses a rather complex question in itself, as various disciplines have given the term rather different and alternative definitions. For instance, the public medi ...[Read More]

Past climate of the Central North Atlantic, insights from ancient soils in the Azores volcanic islands

September 19, 2023
Past climate of the Central North Atlantic, insights from ancient soils in the Azores volcanic islands
Highlight: Field photo of a paleosol (red level) developed in a pumice-rich pyroclastic deposit, partially eroded, and covered by a lava flow (Northern shore of São Miguel Island, in the Azores Archipelago)

The Atlantic Ocean, a climate driver for Europe and North America The climate of both Europe and North America is influenced by the conditions of the Atlantic Ocean. This teleconnection between the ocean and the atmosphere has been the focus of great interest, especially in the context of ongoing global warming. For instance, Cresswell-Clay et al. (2022) noted an expansion of the North Atlantic Os ...[Read More]

Was Antarctica glaciated during the Mesozoic?

November 30, 2022
Was Antarctica glaciated during the Mesozoic?
Wikimedia Commons (Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) for the feature photo.

The climate of Earth’s most southerly landmass (i.e., Antarctica) has varied considerably throughout geological time. The Cretaceous (145-66 million years ago – mya) is widely considered to have been a greenhouse Earth with warmer (or at least warmish) temperatures, globally. Although, there is no direct evidence for pre-Eocene ice sheets in Antarctica, some geological and geochemical proxie ...[Read More]

A glimpse into the INTIMATE’s summer school of 2022

November 21, 2022
A glimpse into the INTIMATE’s summer school of 2022
Group photo of the INTIMATE summer school 2022 at Kokkila. Photo Credit: Francesco Muschitiello.

The Earth’s climate has been rapidly changing in the last decades. That’s a fact! Virtually, every one of us has been experiencing those changes in person, but how do we know that Earth’s climate has changed in the past beyond the instrumental data of the last ~200 years? From ancient manuscripts to geologic records, there are many “archives” one might consider “reading” to infer or reconstruct pa ...[Read More]