Three experts in international affairs will discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its implications for the U.S. as part of the University of Maine Alumni Association’s public affairs webinar series. The online event will be held Thursday, March 3.
Environmental News Network - Zealandia Switch May Be the Missing Link in Understanding Ice Age Climates enn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from enn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Science Daily, Stuff, Eurasia Review, The Earth Institute, Phys.org and Futura reported that a study led by George Denton, Libra Professor in the University of Maine School of Earth and Climate Sciences, and Aaron Putnam, assistant professor, suggests that ice age climate change may be driven by the westerly winds of the Southern Hemisphere which facilitate the release of energy from tropical ocean waters.
Share this:
E-Mail
IMAGE: Moraines constructed during repeated advance-retreat cycles of one of the glaciers that extended out from the Southern Alps in New Zealand during the last ice age. Around 18,000 years ago,. view more
Credit: Photo courtesy of Aaron Putnam
Orono, Maine The origins of ice age climate changes may lie in the Southern Hemisphere, where interactions among the westerly wind system, the Southern Ocean and the tropical Pacific can trigger rapid, global changes in atmospheric temperature, according to an international research team led by the University of Maine.
The mechanism, dubbed the Zealandia Switch, relates to the general position of the Southern Hemisphere westerly wind belt the strongest wind system on Earth and the continental platforms of the southwest Pacific Ocean, and their control on ocean currents. Shifts in the latitude of the westerly winds affects the strength of the subtropical oceanic gyres and, in turn, influences the release of energy