Dust

Paleo Dust

PI(s):

Gisela Winckler

Dust influences climate by altering the radiation budget of the atmosphere, and influences marine biogeochemistry by providing a source of essential micronutrients such as iron.

Website:

Paleo Dust

African Climate and Human Evolution

PI(s):

Peter B. deMenocal

Environmental hypotheses of African faunal evolution propose that major faunal speciation, extinction, and innovation events during the Pliocene-Pleistocene were mediated by

Website:

African Climate and Human Evolution

Location

United States

8° 42' 40.8924" N, 39° 51' 30.2328" E

See map: Google Maps

	Name	Title	Fields of interest
	Gisela Winckler	Lamont Associate Research Professor	Marine geochemistry, Paleoclimatology, Paleoceanography, Tracer oceanography, dust, paleoclimate

What Dust May Have To Do With Earth’s Rapidly Warming Poles

January 09, 2013

As earth’s climate warms, scientists have tried to understand why the poles are heating up two to three times faster than the rest of the planet. Airborne dust, it turns out, may play a key role.

In a new study in Nature Climate Change, researchers show that at the peak of the last ice age, some 21,000 years ago, the poles were 10 times dustier than today, while areas closer to the equator had twice as much dust. During this time of extreme cold, New York City was under two miles of ice and up to 12 degrees F colder than today while Greenland was about 45 degrees F colder. The study’s authors suggest that higher atmospheric dust concentrations at the poles during the last ice age helped to cool earth’s surface and prevent snow and sea ice from melting during summer.
Climate Modelers See Modern Echo in '30s Dust Bowl

May 04, 2008

Farming pushed natural drought into disaster--and could do so again.

NEW YORK – Climate scientists using computer models to simulate the 1930s Dust Bowl on the U.S Great Plains have found that dust raised by farmers probably amplified and spread a natural drop in rainfall, turning an ordinary drying cycle into an agricultural collapse. The researchers say the study raises concern that current pressures on farmland from population growth and climate change could worsen current food crises by leading to similar events in other regions.
Cosmic Dust in Ice Cores Sheds Light on Earth's Past Climate

August 07, 2006

Each year nearly 40,000 tons of cosmic dust fall to Earth from outer space. Now, the first successful chronological study of extraterrestrial dust in Antarctic ice has shown that this amount has remained largely constant over the past 30,000 years, a finding that could help refine efforts to understand the timing and effects of changes in the Earth's past climate.