The Arctic Ocean 150 thousand years ago was covered with ice and filled with fresh water

Instead of sea salt, the Arctic Ocean, like the Northern Seas, was filled with large amounts of fresh water.

water that was under a thick ice sheet.

Then this water probably entered the North Atlantic: such a sudden influx of fresh water could explain the rapid fluctuations in climate, for which no explanation had previously been found.

About 60–70 thousand years ago, during the particularly cold part of the last ice age, most of Northern Europe and North America were covered with ice sheets.

The European ice sheet extended overa distance of more than 5 thousand km from Ireland and Scotland. In North America, much of what is now Canada was buried under two large ice sheets. Greenland and part of the Bering Sea coast were also covered in ice. However, it was not previously known what the Arctic Ocean was like during this period. 

Until now, the Arctic Ocean has beenOnly a few traces of extensive ice shelves have been found. Geoscientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, the Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the MARUMA Center for Marine Environmental Science at the University of Bremen have now collected existing data on the Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas and combined them with new research. 

The find is based on geological analyzes of tensediment cores from different parts of the Arctic Ocean. According to their study, floating parts of the northern ice sheets have covered much of the Arctic Ocean over the past 150 thousand years. In both periods, fresh water accumulated under the ice over thousands of years.

Read more

Look at an 8 trillion pixel image of Mars

Scientists have developed a replacement for the theory of relativity. What is the essence of the "theory of everything"?

Abortion and science: what will happen to the children who will give birth