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Nature 421, 221-223 (16 January 2003) | doi:10.1038/421221a
Palaeoclimatology: Cooling a continent
Peter Barrett
Abstract
The effect of greenhouse gases on climate is underscored by modelling work showing that formation of the Antarctic ice sheet, 34 million years ago, occurred largely because of a fall in atmospheric CO2 concentration.
The first continent-wide Antarctic ice sheet formed in earliest Oligocene times1, now dated at about 34 million years ago. Given its global significance, and that the past is one of the few ways we have of peering into our climatic future, understanding that event has been among the main aims in palaeoclimatology.
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