Australia has a history of climate variability.
One minute it’s drought, the next minute we’re flooded.
When scientists say climate change is making extreme weather more likely, how do they know it s not just natural variability?
Dr Joelle Gergis and her team spent ten years investigating the history of Australia’s climate using every piece of data they could find.
She reveals how the pattern of natural variability has been altered by climate change.
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IMAGE: The herringbone pattern seen in cross-bedded carbonate sands in the Bouse Formation, University of Oregon researchers conclude, is the result of the classic back-and-forth movement of water unique to ocean. view more
Credit: Photo by Rebecca Dorsey
EUGENE, Ore. Dec. 17, 2020 A team led by University of Oregon geologist Rebecca Dorsey has published two papers that provide new insights into the origins of the Colorado River, using data from ancient sedimentary deposits located east of the San Andreas fault near the Salton Sea in Southern California.
The papers, led by former master s student Brennan O Connell and doctoral candidate Kevin Gardner, respectively, present evidence that the now desert landscape of the river s lower valley was submerged roughly 5 million to 6 million years ago under shallow seas with strong, fluctuating tidal currents that flowed back and forth along the trajectory of the present-day river.