Polar core is hot stuff
There was once little difference between equatorial and arctic climates.
Quirin Schiermeier
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060529/full/060529-5.html
A core of sediment pulled from the bottom of the Arctic Ocean has confirmed that, millions of years ago, the North Pole was as warm as a balmy summer day.
Drilling in the Arctic Ocean poses enormous technical difficulties, so relatively little has been discovered about the region's climate history. Now, the spoils of the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX), extend our knowledge from about half a million years to 80 million years ago.
"This will boost understanding of climate evolution, in the Arctic and globally," says Ursula Röhl, a marine geologist at the University of Bremen in Germany. "It's really fantastic that such an enormous advance is still possible these days."
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Impeccable timing
The sediment core also reveals the timing of the north's heating and subsequent cooling. Scientists have found evidence of the Antarctic starting to ice up from 43 million years ago. But evidence of glaciation and sea ice at the North Pole had only been found from about 6 million to 10 million years ago.