Article Abstract:
Micropaleontological and stable-isotope foraminifera data from North Atlantic Ocean cores indicate that changes in sea surface salinity and temperature were positively associated during the last 18,000 years, a period that includes the last deglaciation. This finding further indicates that glacial climatic changes linked with the salinity and temperature changes probably resulted from fluctuations in thermohaline circulation; these fluctuations in turn derived from changes in the hydrological cycle and advection.
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Article Abstract:
Climatic response to changes in solar insolation usually lags by several thousand years, but a core from the Indian Ocean suggests that monsoonal changes over the last 24,000 years often take 300 years or fewer. Rather than a gradual change there appear to have been several distinct, relatively brief steps during the transition from a glacial to a post-glacial climate. The rapid response may be due to albedo changes from snow cover in Asia.
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Article Abstract:
Study of Black Sea sediments confirms the hypothesis that the Minoan eruption of Santorini 3,300 years ago had an eastern, not southeastern, axis. It also demonstrates the size of the explosion: at least two million square km were affected, with a very wide cross-wind spread. The study will help to date other Black Sea sediments, and contributes to the use of carbon-14 dating in the Black Sea area.
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