Some scientists claim climate change may seem to be on hiatus, but new research suggests the ocean has been absorbing heat faster than ever before.
A research team determined the ocean, which has been relieving the human race of the majority of excess heat they create, has been absorbing heat 15 times faster than it has in at least 10,000 years, a Rutgers University news release reported.
"We may have underestimated the efficiency of the oceans as a storehouse for heat and energy," Rosenthal said. "It may buy us some time - how much time, I don't really know - to come to terms with climate change. But it's not going to stop climate change."
The researchers looked at shells of "tiny single-celled, bottom-dwelling foraminifera found in sediment cores" to see into the ocean's heat-absorbing past. The small shells allowed the researchers to study the ocean's temperature over 10,000 years, which was a significant step since before the study researchers could only go as far back as the mid-20th century.
The researchers collected the shells from Indonesian sediment taken from an area where the Pacific and Indian oceans meet.
By measuring ratios of calcium and magnesium in the foraminifera (Hyalinea balthica), the researchers were able to make their findings. When the oceans were warmer the shells calcified, which would be indicated by a higher calcium ratio.
The shell composition showed that waters at depths of about 450 and 1,000 meters were made up of water that had once been on the northern and southern Pacific's surface. As the water grew colder and saltier over time it moved down and towards the equator.
"Our work showed that intermediate waters in the Pacific had been cooling steadily from about 10,000 years ago" Braddock Linsley of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory said. The trend has now reversed in a big way and the deep ocean is warming."
