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.
Around 12,000 years ago, the last Ice Age ended, global temperatures rose and the early Holocene began, during which time human societies became increasingly settled. A new study published in Nature Geoscience shows the ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 1, 2025
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Approximately 400,000 years ago, some areas of Greenland that are now covered by a thick layer of ice were exposed to fresh air and sunlight. Today, the Greenland Ice Sheet covers most of the land mass, but the southwestern ...
Environment
Nov 25, 2025
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A team of international researchers led by the University of Vienna have investigated the development of shark and ray biodiversity over the past 100 million years. Their surprising results show a continuous decline in diversity ...
Ecology
Nov 20, 2025
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Scientists have revealed that ancient bogs in the Southern Hemisphere hold clues to a major shift in Earth's climate thousands of years ago.
Earth Sciences
Nov 19, 2025
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Earth's largest mass extinction occurred about 252 million years ago, wiping out the majority of marine and terrestrial life, disrupting the global carbon cycle for several hundred thousand years, and earning the title "the ...
Ecology
Nov 13, 2025
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While they didn't live in a pineapple under the Phosphoria Sea, it turns out a good chunk of the prehistoric Intermountain West was once blanketed in sea sponges.
Ecology
Nov 13, 2025
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For decades, researchers seeking to understand global climate change have analyzed ice cores drilled deep within the Antarctic ice sheet. This ice traps chemicals and bubbles of ancient air that tell the story of how Earth's ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 21, 2025
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Some ancient marine organisms produced mysterious magnetic particles of unusually large size, which can now be found as fossils in marine sediments.
Astrobiology
Oct 20, 2025
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Rocks store information from long ago. For instance, their composition can reveal the environmental conditions during their formation. This makes them extremely important in climate research. This led a research team at the ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 17, 2025
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The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is one of the most dynamic regions of the Antarctic continent. Much of its bed lies below sea level, making the region particularly sensitive to ocean warming. Understanding the development ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 16, 2025
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