Find out why Antarctica has become the ‘frozen continent’

Science Adina Camarasu
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It seems that scientists have discovered the reasons why Antarctica has become the ice continent about 34 million years ago.

According to the sources, two factors have contributed to the glaciation of the continent and the results were published in the Nature Geoscience journal.

The Drake Passage, which is the region situated between South America and Antarctica, is a region that has changed over time its depth and has influenced the global currents’ circuit.

The change consists in reversing the direction of warm currents’ movements that originate in the tropics. They have been redirected towards the northern latitudes.

The other contribution comes from the reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The CO2 level had gradually decreased almost 66 million years ago, but the abrupt change in the ocean’s currents brought more rain, which significantly contributed to reducing CO2.

“It’s an interesting lesson for us when it comes to climate change, because what we face is a drastic change in Antarctic climate between the two states – from ice free to ice full”, said the co-author of the study from McGill University.

The two factors were initially seen as competitive explanations for the ice at the South Pole, but researchers realized that, actually, they are actually the two sides of the same coin.

According to scientists, the Drake Passage deepening begun near the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which is very strong.

The new current held the cold waters near the continent and acted as a barrier to the warmer, less salty waters coming from North Atlantic and central Pacific.

For this reason, warmer currents were redirected towards other continents, where precipitation has become more frequent.

Apparently, no one has linked the two ideas together until now because the two phenomena occur at different times and it’s difficult to see the connection between them.

The currents are changed over thousands of years. Combining the two scenarios, however, was enough to have the entire Antarctic continent under the snow.