Ice-age atmospheric concentration of nitrous oxide from an Antarctic ice core
Article Abstract:
Analysis of air samples from a deep Antarctic ice core indicate that atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) were 30% lower during the Last Glacial Maximum than during the present Holocene epoch. The ice core, taken at Byrd Station in 1968, also confirmed earlier findings that two other greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), were likewise more common now than during the Last Glacial Maximum. Human activity probably caused the modern rise in atmospheric concentrations of N2O, CO2 and CH4.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Merely the tip of the ice core
Article Abstract:
Data from the Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP) suggest that abrupt but transient warmings during which global temperatures went up by as much as seven degrees C for as long as 2,000 typified the last 30,000 years of the most recent ice age. S.J. Johnson and colleagues based this conclusion on a core that GRIP obtained on Jul 12, 1992 by drilling 3,028.6 meters into Greenland's ice sheet. The ice at this depth is believed to be at least 200,000 years old and to provide a record of paleoclimatic change.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Don't touch that dial
Article Abstract:
Results from the Greenland Ice-Core Project indicate that the interglacial climate may be less stable than was thought. The current interglacial period, the Holocene, has been very stable; the prior one, the Eemian, was much less so. The fine timescale resolution of this ice core reveals temperature changes of up to 10 degrees Celsius in as little as a decade. This variability has enormous implications for all human activity.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1993
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: World heritage status and conservation of southern ocean islands. Integrating costs of conservation into international priority setting
- Abstracts: Decreased osmotic stability of dystrophin-less muscle cells from the mdx mouse. Localization of dystrophin to postsynaptic regions of central nervous system cortical neurons
- Abstracts: Luteinizing hormone and testosterone response of sexually active and inactive rams. Circulating concentrations and pattern of luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone in circulation are changed by the circulating concentration of 17beta-estradiol in the bovine male and female
- Abstracts: A mantle thermometer. Excitation of true polar wander by subduction. Deformation of a weak subducted slab and variation of seismicity with depth
- Abstracts: Concentration of plasma cholesterol in beef cows and calves, milk production and calf gain. Maternal performance of Hereford, Brangus, and reciprocal crossbred cows under semidesert conditions