From the Headlines...

NASA

Swart Uncovers Scientific Miscalculation

In order to test whether carbonate platform-associated sediments are related to the global carbon cycle, Dr. Peter K. Swart studied changes over the past 10 million years at sites off the Bahamas (Atlantic Ocean), the Maldives (Indian Ocean) and the Great Barrier Reef (Pacific Ocean). A new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that variations in the 13C/12C ratio are synchronous at all of the sites studied, but are unrelated to the global change in the 13C/12C ratio. It appears that records related to carbonate platforms which are often used throughout the early history of the Earth are not good recorders of the 13C/12C ratio in the open oceans. Hence, the work presented suggests that assumptions made previously about changes in the 13C/12C ratios of carbonate sediments in the geological record are incorrect. Read more…

Crevasse and Lakes

Bader Lectureship to Feature Renowned Climatologist

Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 6 p.m. the Rosenstiel School will host the Henri and Adele Bader Lectureship on its Virginia Key campus. The speaker will be world-renowned climatologist Dr. Konrad Steffen. A preeminent researcher known to most as “Koni”, Dr. Steffen is responsible for vital instrumentation deployed in the Arctic that helps monitor the significant changes taking place on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Without his work, human knowledge of Arctic climate, warming, and melting dynamics would be substantially diminished. The seminar-style scientific lecture titled “Changes in the Arctic Ice cover: Greenland ice sheet and surrounding oceans,” is free and open to the public. Read more…