#eemian

Stratigraphic Map of Greenland's Ice

Greenland is one of only two places on Earth (the other being Antarctica) that is still covered in a continental glacier—a large expanse of moving ice that is not confined to valleys like its mountain glacier cousins. The conditions of these continental glaciers (also called ice sheets) in Greenland reveal a lot about the effects of climate change and have consequently been under intense scrutiny.

Using both ice cores and ice-penetrating radar, scientists have pieced together a cross-section of what the ice layers look like. While ice-penetrating radar can determine the depth of the ice and the shape of the hidden landscapes below, ice cores tell us age.

The topmost layer of Greenland’s ice is Holocene in age (11,500 years ago to today) as expected. Beneath that there is a layer of ice that formed during the most recent ice age (11,700 to 115,000 years ago), also as expected. Most surprising though, is the final strata of ice—a precious, patchy layer that has survived since the Eemian (115,000 to 130,000 years ago).

The Eemian ice is particularly important since this period was much warmer than neighboring glacial periods. Studying the Eemian ice may help scientists understand what’s in store for ice, oceans, and atmosphere in our warming climate today.

-CM

Homo Sapiens vs Modern Humans

During this ancient period, sometimes called the Eemian, the oceans were about as warm as they are today. And last month, intriguing new research emerged suggesting that Northern Hemisphere glaciers have already retreated just as far as they did in the Eemian, driven by dramatic warming in Arctic regions.

“the Eemian occurred without humans emitting lots of greenhouse gases. Atmospheric carbon dioxide was far lower than it is today.“

The big difference, this time around, is that humans are heating things up far faster than what is believed to have happened in the geologic past.

Humans were nowhere near the Antarctic in the Eemian — and we have never, in the modern period, seen a glacier as big as Thwaites retreat. It’s possible something is going to happen that we don’t have any precedent or predictions for.

Just last week, for instance, scientists reported a large cavity opening beneath one part of the glacier — something they said models could not have predicted.

Fears of Global Flood Due to Ongoing West Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse

Somewhere in the range of 125,000 years prior, amid the last short warm period between ice ages, Earth was awash. Temperatures amid this time, called the Eemian, were scarcely higher than in the present nursery warmed world. However intermediary records indicate ocean levels were 6 to 9 meters higher than they are today, suffocating gigantic swaths of what is presently dry land.

  Researchers…