Research: 30 million years ago, the amount of CO2 on Earth fell sharply. It chilled the planet

A new study led by the University of Bristol found that declines

atmospheric CO2 concentration played an important rolein the transition of the Earth's climate from a warm greenhouse to a cold glacial about 34 million years ago. In the coming centuries, this transition may be partially offset by anthropogenic increases in CO2 concentration.

They found that between 40 and 34 million years agothe Earth's climate has undergone significant climatic changes. Until 40 million years ago, in the Eocene, Antarctica was covered with lush forests, but by 34 million years ago, in the Oligocene, these forests were replaced by thick continental ice sheets, as in modern Antarctica. The main reason for the transition from a greenhouse to an ice age is widely discussed, and there is little information about how the climate on land has changed. An international team of scientists used molecular fossils preserved in ancient coals to reconstruct the temperature on land during this transition.

Physicists have studied the behavior of plasma in water using X-rays

To reconstruct the change in temperature,The team took a new approach to coal deposits from the Gippsland Basin in southeastern Australia. These deposits span over 10 million years of Earth's history and have been detailed by study staff at the University of Melbourne.

New data shows land temperaturescooled simultaneously with the ocean temperature and by a similar amount - about 3 degrees. To investigate the reasons for this drop in temperature, the team ran climate simulations. Only simulations involving a decrease in atmospheric CO2 concentration were able to reproduce cooling consistent with temperature data reconstructed from sediments.

Read more:

See how a black hole begins to destroy a star

Which lakes have disappeared from the face of the Earth and why

New particle discovered at the Large Hadron Collider