Study of Antarctic dust offers vital info on climate change

Published Date: 31 March 2009

A STUDY of dust trapped deep in Antarctic ice sheets is helping unravel details of past climate change, scientists have said.
Researchers have found that dust blown south from Patagonia and deposited in the ice more than 80,000 years ago offers vital information about glacier activity.It is hoped findings from the past will help scientists predict future environmental changes.The study, carried out by the universities of Edinburgh, Stirling and Lille, shows that the very coldest periods of the last ice age correspond with the dustiest periods in the Antarctic region's past.When glaciers in Patagonia retreated, lakes at the edge of the ice trapped the dust so that fewer particles were blown across the ocean to Antarctica.Professor David Sugden, of the University of Edinburgh, said: "The Patagonian glaciers were acting as an on/off switch for releasing dust into the atmosphere."