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.
The glacial Arctic Ocean was not a barren ice desert but a breeding ground for the evolution of cold adaptation in marine fish. This is the main conclusion of a new scientific publication from Stockholm University that examines ...
Evolution
6 hours ago
0
5
Future Arctic winter sea ice is likely to shrink by around 1 million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) more than previously thought, after researchers used clues from a warm period 6,000 years ago to improve the reliability ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 16, 2026
0
141
Humanity's ongoing disruption of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations, temperatures, and global nutrient cycles is starving the oceans of oxygen. Although we can measure ongoing changes to ocean circulation and ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 15, 2026
0
27
New research led by the University of Hawai'i Sea Grant College Program (Hawai'i Sea Grant), the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a 253-year-old core ...
Ecology
Oct 8, 2026
0
13
Over a century ago, Australian geologist Sir Douglas Mawson led a sledding expedition over hundreds of kilometers of ice into a remote part of East Antarctica. The party turned back after the tragic death of a party member. ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 30, 2026
0
14
Scientists have helped solve a longstanding mystery about how Earth remained habitable after oxygen first accumulated in its atmosphere more than 2 billion years ago, providing evidence that ancient ocean chemistry sustained ...
Astrobiology
Sep 29, 2026
0
42
Nitrogen is a key nutrient because it fuels the growth of plankton, which forms the basis of the marine food web. Two opposing processes determine the global nitrogen cycle: nitrogen fixation and denitrification.
Earth Sciences
Sep 17, 2026
0
50
Temperatures have warmed dramatically across the equatorial Pacific Ocean in 2026, signaling the onset of a strong and potentially historic El Niño. These events can affect weather around the world, and the intensity of recent ...
Environment
Aug 28, 2026
0
39
As an El Niño of historic proportions is taking shape in the tropical Pacific, a University of Michigan study has found that El Niño events have become nearly 40% stronger in the last 40 years than they were in the preindustrial ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 27, 2026
1
43
A new study that combines paleoclimate data and climate models suggests that large volcanic eruptions can disrupt the relationship between atmospheric circulation patterns over the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans. In addition, ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 26, 2026
0
327
