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.
More than 514 million years ago, long before dinosaurs roamed Earth, sponge-like creatures called archaeocyathids were already busy building some of the planet's earliest reefs—just north of Death Valley in present-day ...
Evolution
Jun 12, 2025
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Mud is messy. For some, it's a plaything. To many, it can mean real hardship. Mud, though, is often overlooked, particularly when it lies out of sight. Deep down at the bottom of the sea, it is one of the most important natural ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 9, 2025
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Deep sea sediments contain treasure troves of information about marine ecosystems and past climate scenarios, yet remain understudied clues into Earth's environmental future, according to researchers.
Earth Sciences
Jun 6, 2025
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88
Several key moments in Earth's history help us humans answer the question "How did we get here?" These moments also shed light on the question "Where are we going?" and offer scientists deeper insight into how organisms adapt ...
Earth Sciences
May 29, 2025
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84
New research from an international group looking at ancient sediment cores in the North Atlantic has for the first time shown a strong correlation between sediment changes and a marked period of global cooling that occurred ...
Earth Sciences
May 16, 2025
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78
Fifty-six million years ago, during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), global temperatures rose by more than 5°C over 100,000 or more years. Between 3,000 and 20,000 petagrams of carbon were released into the atmosphere ...
Earth Sciences
May 15, 2025
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29
An international research team studying fossilized oyster shells has revealed substantial annual temperature variation in sea water during the Early Cretaceous. The finding overturns the assumption that Earth's greenhouse ...
Earth Sciences
May 13, 2025
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48
Heriot-Watt scientists have discovered giant underwater mud waves buried deep below the Atlantic Ocean, 400 kilometers off the coast of Guinea-Bissau in west Africa.
Earth Sciences
May 7, 2025
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Nearly three-fourths of Earth is covered by oceans, making the planet look like a pale blue dot from space. But Japanese researchers have made a compelling case that Earth's oceans were once green, in a study published in ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 10, 2025
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An international team of geoscientists, marine geologists, climatologists, and environmental specialists has found that lingering El Niño events have increased in frequency over the past 7,000 years. In their study published ...
