Scientists Find Evidence of Ancient Wildfires Near South Pole
The findings suggest lightning likely sparked repeated surface fires that helped early peatlands form and store carbon in a warm, high-CO2 climate.
- Researchers identified the southernmost ancient wildfires ever recorded, discovering charcoal particles in a sediment core from the Amundsen Sea published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
- Ninety million years ago during the Late Cretaceous, this region near the South Pole supported a temperate rainforest with average annual temperatures around 53°F, despite four months of continuous winter darkness.
- Microscopic charcoal particles indicate low-temperature surface fires, while amber seals on fire-damaged tree trunks and abundant Sphagnum spores provided evidence of early raised bog formation linked to recurring burning.
- Lightning strikes, rather than volcanic activity, likely ignited these ancient fires, as the nearest volcanic sites were at least 400 kilometres away, suggesting thunderstorms triggered the burning.
- These findings improve understanding of how fire and peatland ecosystems interact under warm, high-CO2 conditions, offering insights as modern peatlands face growing wildfire risks under climate change.
32 Articles
32 Articles
Evidence of ancient wildfires near the South Pole
Ninety million years ago, Earth’s climate was so warm that dinosaurs roamed swampy rainforests even in what is now icy Antarctica. A team led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, RWTH Aachen University and Northumbria University has now found – in a sediment core – evidence of recurring wildfires in Cretaceous Antarctica near the South Pole. […]
Ancient Charcoal Reveals Wildfires Once Burned Near the South Pole
About 90 million years ago, the landscape near the South Pole looked dramatically different from the frozen wilderness of Antarctica today. A mild, swampy rainforest filled with conifers and tree ferns covered the region, while dinosaurs moved through its wetlands. The average annual temperature was about 12°C, despite the forest experiencing complete darkness for roughly […]
A swampy rainforest of conifers and tree ferns, dinosaurs that roam through foggy wetlands, mild climate despite The post When the South Pole burned first appeared on Nordic.info.
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