Early Climate News

December 21, 2024

Top Headlines

Dripstones Offer Insights Into Climate Dynamics in Europe

Dec. 20, 2024 — Investigations into precipitation patterns in eastern Central Europe since the end of the last ice age have shown that dynamic processes in atmospheric circulation, such as the North Atlantic jet stream, influence regional changes in precipitation. ...

Researchers Identify a Mysterious Fossil Seed to Reveal New Chapters in Climate History of Los Angeles

Dec. 19, 2024 — Scientists have successfully identified a previously unknown species to Southern California from fossilized seeds, revealing a drought-fueled dance between two species of juniper with lessons for the ...

Chart of Life Extended by Nearly 1.5 Billion Years

Dec. 19, 2024 — Fossilized skeletons and shells clearly show how evolution and extinction unfolded over the past half a billion years, but a new analysis extends the chart of life to nearly 2 billion years ago. The chart shows the relative ups and downs in species ...

Massive Volcanic Eruptions Did Not Cause the Extinction of Dinosaurs

Dec. 18, 2024 — While volcanism caused a temporary cold period, the effects had already worn off thousands of years before the meteorite, the ultimate cause of the dinosaur extinction event, ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:26am EST

Prehistoric Rock in Japan Reveals Clues to Major Ocean Anoxic Event

Dec. 17, 2024 — Researchers analyzed radioisotopes in layers of fossilized volcanic ash. Decay of uranium to lead within tiny crystals enabled scientists to precisely pinpoint dates for certain events. They ...

Buried Landforms Reveal North Sea's Ancient Glacial Past

Dec. 13, 2024 — Glaciologists used sound waves to reveal Ice Age landforms buried beneath almost 1 km of mud in the North Sea. The results suggest that the landforms were produced about 1 million years ago, when an ...

Antarctica's Irregular Heartbeat Shows Signs of Rapid Melting

Dec. 10, 2024 — Geoscientists have created a new climate record for early Antarctic ice ages. It reveals that the early Antarctic ice sheet melted more rapidly than previously ...

Was 'Snowball Earth' a Global Event? Study Delivers Best Proof Yet

Nov. 11, 2024 — A series of rocks hiding around Colorado's Rocky Mountains may hold clues to a frigid period in Earth's past when glaciers several miles thick covered the entire ...

Groundbreaking Study Provides New Evidence of When Earth Was Slushy

Nov. 5, 2024 — At the end of the last global ice age, the deep-frozen Earth reached a built-in limit of climate change and thawed into a slushy planet. Results provide the first direct geochemical evidence of the ...

Reconstructing Ancient Climate Provides Clues to Climate Change

Nov. 4, 2024 — Research helps reconstruct an ancient climate and challenges the timing of the Andes Mountains ...

Buried Alive: Carbon Dioxide Release from Magma Deep Beneath Ancient Volcanoes Was a Hidden Driver of Earth's Past Climate

Oct. 30, 2024 — A team discovered that, contrary to present scientific understanding, ancient volcanoes continued to spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from ...

Melting Arctic Sea-Ice Could Affect Global Ocean Circulation

Oct. 27, 2024 — The warming climate in polar regions may significantly disrupt ocean circulation patterns, a new study indicates. Scientists discovered that in the distant past, growing inflows of freshwater from ...

Fossils Unveil How Southern Europe's Ecosystem Changed Through Glacial-Interglacial Stages

Oct. 23, 2024 — Fossils from more than 600,000 years ago reveal how Southern Europe's animal community shifted between warm and cold climate fluctuations, according ...

New Ice Core Data Provides Insight Into Climate 'Tipping Points' During the Last Ice Age

Oct. 21, 2024 — New research from multiple ice cores collected across Greenland with data spanning up to 120,000 years provides new understanding of abrupt ...

Weather-Changing El Nino Oscillation Is at Least 250 Million Years Old

Oct. 21, 2024 — A new modeling study shows that the El Nino event, a huge blob of warm ocean water in the tropical Pacific Ocean that can change rainfall patterns around the globe, was present at least 250 million ...

Adaptability of Trees Persists After Millions of Years of Climate Change

Oct. 14, 2024 — Seven of the most common forest trees in Europe have been shown to be able to shelter their genetic diversity from major shifts in environmental conditions. This is despite their ranges having shrunk ...

Early Human Species Benefited from Food Diversity in Steep Mountainous Terrain

Oct. 10, 2024 — A new study shows that the patchwork of different ecosystems found in mountainous regions played a key role in the evolution of ...

Iron Nuggets in the Pinnacles Unlock Secrets of Ancient and Future Climates

Oct. 2, 2024 — Small iron-rich formations found within Western Australia's Pinnacles, which are part of the world's largest wind-blown limestone belt spanning more than 1000km, have provided new insights ...

Discovery of 3,775-Year-Old Preserved Log Supports 'Wood Vaulting' as a Climate Solution

Sep. 27, 2024 — A new study suggests that an ordinary old log could help refine strategies to tackle climate change. A team of researchers analyzed a 3,775-year-old log and the soil it was excavated from. Their ...

Harvests, Wildfires, Epidemics: How the Jet Stream Has Shaped Extreme Weather in Europe for Centuries

Sep. 25, 2024 — Tree-ring data reveal that periodic shifts in strong winds high above the Earth's surface have driven opposite climates in different parts of Europe for the past 700 years and likely much ...

Over Nearly Half a Billion Years, Earth's Global Temperature Has Changed Drastically, Driven by Carbon Dioxide

Sep. 19, 2024 — A new study offers the most detailed glimpse yet into how Earth's surface temperature has changed over the past 485 million years. The data show that Earth has been and can be warmer than today ...

Explaining Dramatic Planet-Wide Changes After World's Last 'Snowball Earth' Event

Sep. 18, 2024 — Some of the most dramatic climatic events in our planet's history are 'Snowball Earth' events that happened hundreds of millions of years ago, when almost the entire planet was encased ...

Sea Surface Temperature Record in the Southwestern Pacific: Coral Colony from Fiji Reveals Warmest Temperatures in Over 600 Years

Sep. 18, 2024 — The sea surface temperature in the Fijian archipelago in the southwestern Pacific is now at its maximum for more than 600 years. This finding is the result of an international research team's ...

How El Nino and Mega Ocean Warming Caused the Greatest-Ever Mass Extinction

Sep. 12, 2024 — Mega ocean warming El Nino events were key in driving the largest extinction of life on planet Earth some 252 million years ago, according to new research. The study has shed new light on why the ...

New Population Model Identifies Phases of Human Dispersal Across Europe

Sep. 4, 2024 — Researchers have developed a model that captures the dynamics of human dispersal across the continent during the last Ice Age in unprecedented ...

Algorithm Raises New Questions About Cascadia Earthquake Record

Aug. 27, 2024 — A study is calling into question the reliability of the earthquake record of Cascadia. The researchers analyzed a selection of turbidite layers from the Cascadia subduction zone dating back about ...

What Microscopic Fossilized Shells Tell Us About Ancient Climate Change

Aug. 26, 2024 — By analyzing foram shells recovered in drill cores, study led by geologists links rapid climate change that led to thermal maxima 50 million years ago to rising CO2 ...

Scottish and Irish Rocks Confirmed as Rare Record of 'Snowball Earth'

Aug. 16, 2024 — The study found that the Port Askaig Formation, composed of layers of rock up to 1.1 km thick, was likely laid down between 662 to 720 million years ago during the Sturtian glaciation -- the first of ...

New Study Unveils 16,000 Years of Climate History in the Tropical Andes

Aug. 12, 2024 — Researchers highlight the roles of carbon dioxide and ocean currents as key drivers of temperature fluctuations in the tropical Andes over a 16,000 year ...

Millions of Years for Plants to Recover from Global Warming

Aug. 9, 2024 — Catastrophic volcanic eruptions that warmed the planet millions of years ago shed new light on how plants evolve and regulate climate. Researchers reveal the long-term effects of disturbed natural ...

Record-Breaking Recovery of Rocks That Originated in Earth's Mantle Could Reveal Secrets of Planet's History

Aug. 9, 2024 — Scientists have recovered the first long section of rocks that originated in the Earth's mantle, the layer below the crust and the planet's largest component. The rocks will help unravel ...

Carvings at Ancient Monument May Be World's Oldest Calendars

Aug. 6, 2024 — Markings on a stone pillar at a 12,000 year-old archaeological site in Turkey likely represent the world's oldest solar calendar, created as a memorial to a devastating comet strike, experts ...

Antarctic-Wide Survey of Plant Life to Aid Conservation Efforts

Aug. 6, 2024 — The first continent-wide mapping study of plant life across Antarctica reveals growth in previously uncharted areas and is set to inform conservation measures across the region. The satellite survey ...

Greenland Fossil Discovery Reveals Increased Risk of Sea-Level Catastrophe

Aug. 5, 2024 — Seeds, twigs, and insect parts found under two miles of ice confirm Greenland's ice sheet melted in the recent past, the first direct evidence that the center -- not just the edges -- of the ...