by Jeff Dunetz | Aug 16, 2016 | Climate
Somewhere between 115K and 130K years ago the Earth went through a warming spell so severe that 65% of the Antarctic Ice melted. Which means among other things, that unless the Flintstones lied to us and they used a carbon-based fuel instead of foot power, global warming can happen without any help from mankind.
Winter sea ice around Antarctica shrank 65 per cent in a natural warm period between Ice Ages about 128,000 years ago, when temperatures were slightly warmer than now, according to the new report in the journal Nature Communications.
The way the scientists drew their conclusion was an analysis ancient ice cores drilled from deep in the Antarctic ice sheet. Based on the chemistry of those cores the scientists were able to figure out how far the snow got blown from the ocean before it landed and got compressed into ice. From that data they concluded that “reduction in winter sea ice area of 65±7% fully explains the ice core evidence from 128K years ago.”
