NSF
Press
Release 96-009
Scientists Report Surprising New Results from
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Crater
fragments found more than 1,000 kilometers away from
the impact site, unexpected ancient volcanoes, evidence of long-ago global
warming, and clues to recent climate change are just a few of the surprising
results of a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) Ocean Drilling Program
(ODP) research expedition.
Departing
from
Says Robert Corell, NSF assistant director for
geosciences, "The global effects of this impact were so severe that it
closed one chapter in Earth history, and opened another. The Caribbean Sea
ODP research expedition has led to new information about millions of years of
our planet's past."
By
drilling deep into the ocean floor in the
Central
American Volcanism Totally unexpected on this expedition was the discovery that
volcanic eruptions in
These
ash layers indicate that Central American volcanic activity was particularly
severe during two periods in the geologic record, about 34 and 19 million years
ago. The
sources of these volcanic ash layers lie over 1,000 kilometers
to the west, in the ancient volcanoes of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and
Honduras, from which the Mayans quarried volcanic rocks to build the great
pyramid at Coban. The majority of these volcanic
eruptions were larger than any recent-history volcanic event.
Ancient Global Warming, An Analogy to Today? Scientists have
been probing the Earth's geologic record for past events that might help us
understand the effects of rapid climate changes. During the last few years,
geologists have found evidence, in sediment cored from the deep ocean basins,
for dramatic global warming about 55 million years ago. This warming was
coincident with massive extinction of microscopic organisms living on the sea
floor, the most devastating event to strike these microorganisms
in the past 100 million years.
During
the expedition, striking records of the dramatic warming episode were brought
up from the
Clues to
Recent Climate Change Bridging the gap between ancient and modern climate is a
quarter-million-year record of tropical climate change preserved in
Scientists
expect the
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Media
Contacts
Cheryl
L. Dybas, NSF (703) 292-8070 cdybas@nsf.gov
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