Global Ice Age Climate Patterns Influenced by Bering Strait

New research shows that water levels in the Bering Strait helped drive global climate patterns during ice age episodes dating back more than 100,000 years. The international study found that the repeated opening and closing of the narrow strait due to fluctuating sea levels affected currents that transported heat and salinity in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

"The global climate is sensitive to impacts that may seem minor," says National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist Aixue Hu, the project's lead scientist. "Even small processes, if they are in the right location, can amplify changes in climate around the world."

As a result, summer temperatures in parts of North America and Greenland oscillated between comparatively warm and cold phases, causing ice sheets to alternate between expansion and retreat and affecting sea levels worldwide.

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Image credit: NASA