Record Temperature in the Arctic Ocean

Editor’s Note:  From CRE Brazil

After 2,000 years, the Arctic Ocean registered a record temperature. The water heated up 1.94° in the last century and remained 1.38° warmer than the last episode of global warming, registered in the Middle Ages between 900 AD and 1300 AD. Data was obtained after a sediment analysis collected from the Fram Strait (between Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard) by researchers from the University of Germany, Norway and the United States. The increase in water temperature is linked to the intensification of heat transfer to all the North Atlantic.

The researchers obtained information analyzing protozoa living at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Shells are deposited at the bottom of the ocean and form layers according to temperature. With a calculation that included the amount of shells and the chemical composition of the sediment, researchers were able to reach reliable values for water temperature over the last 2,000 years.