Basically, it looks like the Earth released a gigantic fart

[banana republican]

Arctic's tropical past uncovered

Fifty-five million years ago the North Pole was an ice-free zone with tropical temperatures, according to research.

"This time period is associated with a very enhanced green house effect," explained Appy Sluijs, a palaeoecologist from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and the lead author on one of the papers.

"Basically, it looks like the Earth released a gigantic fart of green house gases into the atmosphere - and globally the Earth warmed by about 5C (9F).

"This event is already widely studied over the whole planet - but the one big exception was the Arctic Ocean."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5034026.stm

[existentialist]

1. One question I have about these results is:

OK, these core samples are 55 million years old, and were taken from the Arctic Ocean, but, as we know, plate tectonics causes these core samples to move over time, and 55 million years is a enough time for the plates, and the fossils they carry with them to move a significant distance. Therefore:

Do they know whether these fossils formed in the arctic, or may they have formed somewhere else and then have been moved north?

[El Supremo]

3. The Arctic hasn't moved much since then.

The opening of the Atlantic, the closing of the Tethis Sea and the ramming of India into Asia were the big movements that have happened since.

But the real facts are that there have been many (dozens?) of advances and retreats of the polar ice sheets since then. This warming event in the Eocene was a long time ago and apparently an anomaly caused by release of methane from the ocean floor. The anti-global warming propagandists are going to use it to explain away our present dilemma.

[central scrutinizer]

2. too bad this was pre-fraternity

or they could have created an awesome blue angel

[133724]

4. WARNING: BUSH BRAIN FART COMMING!!! N/T

[Lisa]

5. he who measures the radiative transfer, dealt it?

It's a great analogy, but I can imagine someone in the communications division at his university telling him, "use informal language in press interviews ... but not that informal!" If they're anything like my school, that is.