Climate change: 700-year history of wind recorded in island mud
By Jonathan Amos
image captionMarion Island (290 sq km) is the peak of a volcano. The lake is circled
Scientists have reconstructed a 700-year history of how westerly winds have blown around the Southern Hemisphere.
It s a remarkable record that s written in the muds at the bottom of a small lake on the remote Marion Island in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean.
What this history reveals is that the strength and latitude of the westerlies is tied closely to temperature.
And the implication is that the winds will likely intensify and move poleward as the climate warms.