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.
Earth's earliest continents may have set the chemical stage for life by regulating boron levels in ancient oceans, a new study in Terra Nova suggests.
Astrobiology
May 6, 2026
0
46
Tiny plankton shells used to reconstruct past polar ocean temperatures may contain two different chemical stories, a new study by iC3 researchers has found. The work shows that Neogloboquadrina pachyderma, a key species in ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 30, 2026
1
20
New research published in Science Advances reveals that the largest expansion of coral reefs in the past 100 million years happened about 20 to 10 million years ago, between Australia and Southeast Asia.
Plants & Animals
Apr 30, 2026
0
21
A research team with scientists from MARUM—Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen studied the hemispheric origin of Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) and found a high Southern Hemispheric contribution ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 20, 2026
0
11
Scientists have discovered that deep-water corals in the Galapagos region vanished for more than 1,000 years before eventually recovering. The findings reveal that deep-water coral ecosystems may be more susceptible to climate ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 20, 2026
0
33
New technology has helped a team of scientists uncover more than 20 microscopic fossils, including a species previously unknown to science. The discovery may provide us with fresh insights into the Late Ordovician, one of ...
Some newly published findings from an Idaho State University professor and his colleagues point out how changes to currents an ocean away can impact climates on the other side of the globe. The new paper published in Nature ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 2, 2026
0
159
Researchers have uncovered new evidence that short-lived spikes in ocean phosphorus may have played a major role in two of the most severe marine extinctions in Earth's history. Dr. Matthew Dodd from The University of Western ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 1, 2026
0
16
The analysis of a sediment core from an oasis lake in Chad provides new insights into the history of precipitation in the Sahara. The study, led by the University of Cologne, shows that a prolonged wet phase, which lasted ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 26, 2026
0
22
Cycles in the growth and decay of Antarctica's ice sheets once shaped marine biological productivity thousands of miles away in the subtropical ocean, according to new research led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 24, 2026
8
2354
