Paleoceanography is the scientific study of past ocean states, processes, and variability on geological timescales, using physical, chemical, biological, and isotopic proxies preserved in marine sediments, microfossils, corals, and other archives. It reconstructs parameters such as sea-surface and deep-water temperatures, salinity, circulation patterns, biogeochemical cycles, ice volume, and sea level, often through analyses of stable and radiogenic isotopes, trace metals, and sedimentological characteristics. Paleoceanography is central to understanding ocean–climate feedbacks, carbon cycle dynamics, and the response of the ocean system to external forcings, and it provides critical boundary conditions and validation targets for climate and Earth system models.
Navigating monolithic icebergs, massive ocean waves and sub-zero snowstorms, CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator is a workhorse for Antarctic science. In just over 11 years and spread across seven voyages, the vessel ...
Earth Sciences
6 hours ago
0
0
Climate change is lengthening our days because rising sea levels slow Earth's rotation. Researchers from the University of Vienna and ETH Zurich now show that the current increase in day length—1.33 milliseconds per century—is ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 12, 2026
10
3
A new study led by researchers at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo challenges a long-standing assumption about Earth's most extreme ice ages. Using numerical geochemical models, the team ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 10, 2026
0
0
New geological data indicate that marine life is somewhat resilient to warming in the tropics. Chris Fokkema, Earth scientist at Utrecht University, discovered that tropical algae were largely unaffected by a number of periods ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 1, 2026
1
0
Cyanobacteria, as they still exist today, were the first organisms to carry out photosynthesis and release oxygen. Produced in primeval oceans about 2.5 billion years ago, this oxygen accumulated in Earth's atmosphere on ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 26, 2026
0
0
Eastern Canada has seen a rise in the number of hurricane- and near-hurricane strength events battering its maritime areas, with particularly violent storms in 2003 (Hurricane Juan), 2019 (Dorian) and 2022 (Fiona). While ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 24, 2026
0
0
Researchers have identified a "tipping point" about 2.7 million years ago when global climate conditions switched from being relatively warm and stable to cold and chaotic, as continental ice sheets expanded in the Northern ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 19, 2026
0
67
A new study shows that during the last two deglaciations, i.e., the transition from an ice age to the warm interglacial periods, meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheet intensified stratification in the Southern Ocean. The ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 14, 2026
2
153
Human activity has lessened the resilience of modern coral reefs by restricting the food-fueled energy flow that moves through the food chains of these critical ecosystems, reports an international team of researchers in ...
Ecology
Feb 11, 2026
0
72
Most shark fossils are just teeth—their cartilage skeletons usually decay long before they can fossilize. But in northwestern Arkansas, a series of geological sites known as the Fayetteville Shale has preserved dozens of ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Feb 9, 2026
0
225
