Non-icy poles according to reports in ScienceDaily 7 April 2016, Tech Times 11 April 2016 and Nature Communications doi:10.1038/ncomms11148 Published online 4 April 2016 and New Scientist 6 May 2016. Two separate studies of the North and South Polar regions indicate that both the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic continent have been ice-free in the past.
The Arctic study was conducted by an international team of scientists who examined sediment samples collected from the Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean. The sediments were dated as from the late Miocene period – 6 to 10 million years ago. In order to estimate the temperature of oceans during summers, they analysed two sets of organic compounds, or “biomarkers” in the sediments.
Ruediger Stein of Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, who led the study explained: “The first group of biomarkers is derived from carbonaceous algae that live in surface water, i.e. they need open water and, being plants, depend on light. Since in the central Arctic Ocean sunlight is only available during the spring and summer months and is pitch-dark at all other times, the data derived from these carbonaceous algae provide us with information about the surface water conditions during the summer period”.
The algae produce different biomarkers depending on the temperature of the water. By analysing these, the research team calculated the oceans would have been between 4 and 9 degrees Celsius (7.2 to 16.2 degrees Fahrenheit). This is above the freezing point of water, indicating the oceans were not frozen over during this time.
The Antarctic study involved an analysis of pollen grains in a sediment core extracted from the sea floor off Wilkes Land in East Antarctica. According to New Scientist, “Pollen grains found inside show how vegetation on the continent changed between the early Eocene, around 54 million years ago and into the Miocene, 12 million years ago”.
The pollen confirms other studies that indicate Antarctica was once covered with tropical trees including palms and monkey puzzle trees. However, the core also shows a transition from these tropical trees to temperate trees, including Huon Pine and Southern Beeches, and then to tundra-like vegetation of grasses and mosses. At present Antarctica is an icy wasteland with no vegetation.
ScienceDaily, Tech Times, New Scientist
Editorial Comment: Icy wastelands are not very good because nothing can live there. We wonder why the proponents of man-made global warming are so worried about the Arctic Ocean being ice free. We also wonder what they think caused the warm climate that enabled life in these currently lifeless regions. It can’t have been human industry. If you believe the evolutionary timetable, humans didn’t exist then.
However, it doesn’t matter how old you believe these sediments to be, the point is they show the Polar regions were once sufficiently warm for algae to grow in the Arctic ocean and trees to grow in Antarctica. Therefore, the climate has definitely changed – it has become a lot colder in Polar regions. These studies also indicate the world once had a more uniformly mild climate, which is what you would expect if the world was created “very good” but the environment has degenerated following the devastation of the world-wide flood when winter and summer get a mention for the first time in Genesis 8. (Ref. climate, environment, sea ice)
Evidence News vol.16. No. 9
18 May 2016
Creation Research Australia