2.7-Million-Year-Old Forested Landscape Discovered under Greenland Ice Sheet
“We found organic soil that has been frozen to the bottom of the ice sheet for 2.7 million years,” said Dr Paul Bierman, a geologist with the University of Vermont and the lead author of the paper appearing online in the journalScience.
“The ancient soil under the Greenland Ice Sheet helps to unravel an important mystery surrounding climate change – how did big ice sheets melt and grow in response to changes in temperature?” said co-author Dr Dylan Rood from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The discovery indicates that even during the warmest periods since the ice sheet formed, the center of Greenland remained stable.“
“Greenland really was green! However, it was millions of years ago. Greenland looked like the green Alaskan tundra, before it was covered by the second largest body of ice on Earth,” Dr Rood said.
http://www.sci-news.com/geology/science-forested-landscape-greenland-ice-sheet-01861.html
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i suggest that anyone interested in the history of the earth’s climate should read alfred russel wallis book ‘island life or the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras’ which gives a comprehensive account of ancient glacial epochs and mild climates in the arctic regions. on page 65 headed ‘the miocene arctic flora’ he relates on the discovery of a luxuriant miocene flora in various parts of the arctic regions as far north as spitsbergen in 78 deg and 79 deg n. lat. where various tree species including conifer, swamp cypress, pines, sequoias, oaks, poplars, birches, planes, limes, a hazel, an ash and a walnut. in total 100 species of flowering plants. even within 8 and a quarter degrees of the pole a similar flora existed.