Growth rings on rocks give up North American climate secrets

Watts Up With That?

3 millimeters of soil deposits detail 120,000 years of climate history

From the  UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – BERKELEY

This is a map of the predominant weather patterns in mid-latitude North American from 70,000 to 55,000 years ago. The large ice sheet covering the northeastern portion of the continent caused a strong high pressure system to persist above it, which drew Gulf of Mexico-sourced precipitation (red arrows) into the mid-continent and Wyoming (white star). The result was rainy summers during this time, and possibly drier winters.
CREDIT Erik Oerter

Scientists have found a new way to tease out signals about Earth’s climatic past from soil deposits on gravel and pebbles, adding an unprecedented level of detail to the existing paleoclimate record and revealing a time in North America’s past when summers were wetter than normal.

A research team led by soil scientists at the University of California, Berkeley obtained data about…

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