'Decoding' origin of Antarctic dust

British scientists recently claimed to have identified the origin of the dust mixed in ice blocks at the Antarctic arc and said the finding provides more details about the climate change process during the Last frost.

Professor David Sudgen of Edimburg University commented that each sample of Antarctic ice blocks is a "treasure trove" of world climate over each period, but the rate of dust changes abruptly through patterns. The analysis used to embarrass scientists.

Previously, researchers thought that this difference stems from the changes in Antarctica's own environment. The new work proves that this dust has originated from the Patagonia subcontinent in the southernmost South America.

The new hypothesis suggests that when Patagonia was in the coldest period of the last glacial period (about 80,000 years ago), the currents of water dripping from the giant ice masses at the subcontinent flowed over the surface of the jar. raw and entwined with dust particles, then strong winds dry the currents and blow this dust to Antarctica.

But as the ice blocks shrink, the small flows of these glaciers converge into large lakes at the foot of each ice block and the dust settles at the bottom of the lake, not caught up in the winds. This is the reason why the amount of dust coming to Antarctica drops dramatically when the ice blocks in Patagonia shrink.

Scientists hope that this new discovery will help them better understand the process of climate change during the last ice age and thereby predict future changes.

Antarctica was chosen as a place to study the history of world climate because this continent contained many primitive specimens, unaffected by human activity and also where the Earth phenomenon warmed to show most obvious.