| Princeton University, a NYSERNet member, led researchers have extracted 2 million-year-old ice cores from Antarctica that provide the first direct observations of Earth’s climate at a time when the furred early ancestors of modern humans still roamed. he researchers use data from the ice cores to answer long-held questions about how our current glacial cycle emerged. Up until roughly 1.2 million years ago, Earth’s ice ages consisted of thinner, smaller glaciers that came and went every 40,000 years on average. After what is known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, there emerged our current world characterised by colder and longer glacial cycles of 100,000 years. The two periods are known as the 40k and 100k world, respectively. Read more here: https://bit.ly/37SGtdbPhoto Credits: Sean Mackay, Boston University |