Antarctica reveals a dense rain forest some 9 million years ago ~ zee4u newz

Berlin: An international team of scientists has discovered that over 90 million years ago, there was a dense forest in Antarctica, where it was raining heavily. We can also think of it as a kind of rain forest, whose presence shows that Antarctica was a hot summer, millions of years ago.

According to a report published in the latest issue of the research journal "Nature", a joint team of experts from Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands made a 30 meter deep but thin hole (borehole) in Antarctica. Received.

After careful and detailed microscopic observation of these specimens for three years, it was finally decided that the soil samples that were of great depth and estimated some 90 million years old were found in the trees. Microscopic roots and apricots were present.

It should be noted that today there is a thick layer of ice on the southern "Antarctica" of the continental pole, which is more than 2 km thick, so the experts first had to drill into the ice, after which special equipment at a depth of 30 meters. Excavated and soil samples obtained.

After a more thorough analysis of the erosion of the roots and the number of apricots, the experts estimated that these trees would be much thicker than our current estimates, and that it would have been raining here more than 900 million years ago.

Antarctica reveals a dense rain forest some 9 million years ago

Unlike other continents, Antarctica's tectonic plate has been at its current location for millions of years. That is, 9 million years ago, there used to be a six-month day and a six-month night like today. Every year, four months out of the six months at night, when it is very dark; and perhaps even colder.

To answer this question, experts studied the same soil hundreds of millions of years ago and reported that the average temperature in Antarctica was 12 degrees Celsius higher than today. In addition, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (nowadays 412 parts per million, ie 412 ppm) was between 1120 ppm and 1680 ppm at that time.

Earlier, experts believed that carbon dioxide rates in the atmosphere would have been close to 1000 ppm in the atmosphere of the atmosphere 90 million years ago.

It is not an easy task to reach buried soil under thousands of meters of thick ice and then drill into the depths. But it is important that another team of experts also confirm the discovery so that the evidence can reach their credentials.