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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 2017)
22 Wednesday, January 25, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Scientists study ancient ocean temperatures By Mark Floyd Correspondent PHOTO PROVIDED Martin Sexton plays Wednesday. CONCERT: Show launches festival’s annual series Continued from page 3 at concerts ranging from col- laborating with John Mayer to the jam scene work- ing with Peter Frampton, to the Newport Folk Fest, Bonnaroo, and the New Orleans Jazz Fest. Promotion of the 2017 tour states: “Remember that mix-tape your friend made you way back when — the one that’s etched in your soul? Martin Sexton’s new album, Mixtape of the Open Road, is that musical cross-country trip, blazing through all territories of style as you cruise through time and place. This record is a charm bracelet of 12 gems all strung together with the golden thread of what Rolling Stone calls a “soul-marinated voice.” Tickets can be purchased at www.sistersfolkfestival. org/tickets or by calling 541-549-4979. Series passes are $55 for adults, $40 for youth 18 and under. Tickets are also avail- able for individual shows. All shows are at Sisters High School Auditorium at 7 p.m. CORVALLIS — During the last major interglacia- tion period, when ice sheets in Greenland and Antarc- tica were smaller than today resulting in a global sea level that was 20 to 30 feet higher, scientists believe ocean tem- peratures were warmer than at most times in the Earth’s recent history. However, those estimates of ocean temperatures show a high level of uncertainty, making it difficult to accu- rately project warming into the future and its impacts on sea level rise. Now a team of scientists has assembled data from around the world in a com- prehensive analysis of global ocean temperatures during the interglaciation period from 129,000 to 116,000 years ago. The team found that global average ocean temperatures were roughly half a degree (Celsius) warmer during that period than during pre-indus- trial times and nearly identi- cal to the average temperature over the last 20 years. Results of the study, which was supported by the National Science Founda- tion, appear this week in the journal Science. “Half a degree may not sound like very much, but in terms of average global ocean temperature, it actually is quite substantial,” said lead author Jeremy Hoffman, who led the work as a doctoral stu- dent at Oregon State Univer- sity, and is now a staff scien- tist with the Science Museum of Virginia. “The problem is that computer models have not been able to simulate this amount of warming for the last interglaciation. Because these are the same models used to project future temper- atures, this suggests that they may be missing important processes that would result in even warmer temperatures than now considered.” The last interglaciation period was one of the warm- est periods on Earth in the last 800,000 years. A previ- ous study by Oregon State researchers — published in Science — documented the higher sea levels and scien- tists have hypothesized that warmer ocean temperatures have been part of the process. Peter Clark, an Oregon State climate scientist and co-author on the study, said one reason for warmer tem- peratures during the last inter- glaciation, and the decline of the Greenland ice sheet, was a shift in Earth’s orbit around the sun. “Although carbon dioxide levels then were comparable to the pre-industrial era, solar insolation in the northern hemisphere during the sum- mer was much higher,” said Clark, who has the title of dis- tinguished professor in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. “This more intense solar insolation contributed to the warmer temperatures.” The researchers believe the melting of the Greenland ice sheet weakened the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Cir- culation, or AMOC, a system of currents that usually brings warmer water from the tropics to the south. As it weakened, sea-surface temperatures rose in the southern hemisphere, also contributing to warmer global temperatures. “It was a double- whammy,” Clark said. “Solar insolation warmed the north- ern hemisphere, a weakened AMOC warmed the south.” Earth’s orbit around the sun is different today, result- ing in less solar insolation. The planet has warmed by about one degree (Celsius) since 1750 because of human influence. Help us keep local dogs warm & dry! OUR PET COAT DRIVE CONTINUES We gratefully take all sizes, but have a good supply of small & medium on hand. Our current need is for coats in sizes LARGE and EXTRA-LARGE! New, or clean and in good condition, please. Drop off at The Nugget office, 442 E. Main Ave. And if your dog needs a coat or sweater, come in and find a perfect fit for your pooch! FURRY FRIEND S 501 ( c )( 3 ) THANK YOU to all who have donated! FOUNDATION FurryFriendsFoundation.org Furry Friends Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization