Scientists Work on Map of Climate Change

[Triana]

By NATE JENKINS

Posted: Today at 5:32 p.m.

LINCOLN, Neb. — Scientists in Antarctica spent Christmas Day finishing work that may show the effects of global warming - drilling for clues about how massive ice sheets responded to past temperature changes. The project will be vital to creating a map of how the Earth may react to higher temperatures, scientists say.

One hundred scientists from four countries are working on the Antarctic Geological Drilling Program, or ANDRILL, coordinated by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

They gather rock core from deep below the Antarctic sea floor, then analyze it.

So far, the cores show a dynamic ice sheet that advanced and retreated more than 50 times over 5 million years.

Some of the ice shelf's disappearance was probably during times when the planet was 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) to 37 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) warmer than it is today - "much like it will be in the next 50 to 100 years," said Tim Naish, a lead scientist on the project from Victoria University in New Zealand.

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http://www.wral.com/news/science/story/1120145/