Antarctica was once warm

In the warm period 52 million years ago, tropical plants were like palm trees, each covering the Antarctic coast.

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The sediment on the continental shelf near Antarctica has provided evidence of the ancient tropical period in the current year-round frost, according to the BBC's Goethe University experts (Germany).

Cold Antarctica used to be as warm as the tropics

Through the sediments collected after drilling to the bottom of the Antarctic's eastern sea, scientists discovered fossil pollen of a forest that 'resembles rainforest' at the ice continent about 34- 56 million years ago.

The new finding highlights the overwhelming difference between the modern climate and the Antarctic past, as well as the extent to which global warming affects the CO _2- filled atmosphere. .

Kevin Welsh, a scientist at the University of Queensland (Australia), said the data analyzing molecules that respond to temperature changes in sediments show that Antarctic temperatures are about 20 degrees Celsius 52 million years ago. year.

52 million years ago, at the beginning of the Tan Binh (also known as the Eocene), the density of CO ₂ in the air was twice higher than the current greenhouse gas emissions.

Welsh cited the predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the worst case scenario could be that the Antarctic ice sheet would dissolve 'by the end of the century.'

"The melting speed is still dependent on emissions in the near future. The ice in Antarctica melts quickly, which will have a devastating effect on sea levels worldwide ," Welsh said.

Just a few meters of sea level rise will flood 'a large area of ​​land in coastal areas of many countries,' Mr. Welsh warned.

Report published in Nature.