Ancient global warming episode holds clues to future climate, UH Manoa researcher says

		IMAGE: The sediment archives obtained during ocean drilling programs give scientists a glimpse into Earth's climatic history. Inset: Deep sea sediment cores across the Paleocene-Eocene boundary. The sections of light... Click here for more information.

When scientists take Earth's temperature, they usually use thermometers. But when scientists want to figure out Earth's temperature in the past, they have to rely on other tools. One of these is deep-sea sediment cores (see Figure). Deep-sea sediments contain fossil remains of tiny marine creatures and other materials that sink to the ocean floor. Over millions of years, these materials pile up and build climate archives that tell stories about Earth's history. Today, scientists recover those archives during ocean drilling expeditions aboard research vessels such as the JOIDES Resolution (see Figure).