Multimedia Gallery - Oxygen gas in ice cores has shown evidence for abrupt climate change.

A graphic showing changes in oxygen isotope levels between 14,700 years ago and 14,500 years ago

June 11, 2009

Oxygen gas in ice cores has shown evidence for abrupt climate change.

The ratio of ¹⁸O to ¹⁶O found in an ice core has shown the history of abrupt climate change on Earth. For example, dry spells around 14,700 years ago resulted in the planet being quite arid north of the equator. Monsoons that followed, caused the proliferation of vegetation north of the equator 14,500 years ago.

Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.

Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (533 KB)

Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.