The ice-covered Antarctica of today was very different millions of years ago. It was a much warmer and wetter place, according to a study conducted by NASA.
According to the results of a recent study, taken in conjunction with that of an earlier piece of NASA research, it would appear the frozen wastelands of the Antarctica could be returning to the vastly different climate of all those millions of years ago, when it was warm enough to support vegetation and the growth of stunted trees.
A team of scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, examined plant leaf wax remnants in sediment core samples taken from under the Ross Ice Shelf. The team, lead by Sarah J. Feakins of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, discovered that summer temperatures along the Antarctic coast, some 15 to 20 million years ago, were 20 degrees Fahrenheit higher than today and those temperatures used to go as high as 45 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems that even the precipitation levels were several times higher than that of today.
While high carbon dioxide levels during the middle Miocene epoch have been documented in other studies through multiple lines of evidence, scientists are still not sure why carbon dioxide was at these levels during the middle Miocene. In fact, high levels of carbon dioxide, together with the global warmth documented from many parts of the world and now also from the Antarctic region, appear to coincide during this period in Earth's history.
Finally, according to the report, animals found in that era were "three-toed horses, deer, camel and various species of apes".
This research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation with additional support from NASA.
(Source: NASA)
