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Weakened ocean currents could have promoted ice ages <\/p>\n
Keystone-SDA <\/p>\n
A slowdown in ocean currents in the North Atlantic could have been partly responsible for longer and more intense ice ages around a million years ago, a study by the University of Bern reveals.\n<\/p>\n
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April 24, 2026 – 14:13\n<\/p>\n
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox<\/a><\/p>\n Over the past 800,000 years, the Earth\u2019s climate has cycled between warm periods and ice ages roughly every 100,000 years, driven by changes in the planet\u2019s orbit around the Sun. Earlier than about 1.2 million years ago, however, the climate followed a different rhythm, governed mainly by variations in the tilt of the Earth\u2019s axis, with cycles lasting around 41,000 years.<\/p>\n A team of researchers led by Dr. Iv\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez-Almeida from the Past Global Changes global research network based at the University of Bern has used sediment drilling to investigate the role played by changes in ocean currents in the North Atlantic \u2013 and thus also show how they could influence the Earth\u2019s climate in the future. Their study was published today in\u00a0Nature Communications.<\/p>\n According to a press release, they used sediment cores from the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) from the region south of Iceland as the basis for their investigations. <\/p>\n Over hundreds of thousands of years, particles from the seawater, including microfossils such as plankton, are deposited layer by layer in the sediments. These preserve information about the prevailing conditions in the ocean at that time, such as temperature or oxygen content.<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Glaciers & permafrost\n <\/p>\n Swiss science seeks answers to climate change in Antarctic ice <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Oct 1, 2025 <\/p>\n Researchers in Bern are studying some of the oldest ice samples on the planet. They want to shed light on one of the main mysteries of the Earth\u2019s climate. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: Swiss science seeks answers to climate change in Antarctic ice With the help of geochemical measurements of oxygen-sensitive elements such as manganese and phosphorus as well as the analysis of fossil microorganisms living on the bottom the researchers reconstructed how well the deep North Atlantic was supplied with oxygen between 1.1 million years to 800,000 years ago.<\/p>\n The researchers showed that during this change in climate cycles, the deep North Atlantic repeatedly went through cold phases in which the oxygen content was greatly reduced.<\/p>\n Melted freshwater from glaciers<\/p>\n The researchers identified the reason for this as large quantities of melted freshwater, which had entered the North Atlantic from ever-growing glaciers and icebergs. This lighter freshwater stabilised the upper layer of the ocean and thus weakened the currents that transport oxygen-rich water into the depths.<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Research frontiers\n <\/p>\n How a Swiss-US study challenges what we know about the Gulf Stream system <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Jan 30, 2025 <\/p>\n The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the system of currents vital to regulating the European climate, has not shown any sign of decline in the last 60 years, a new study shows. <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ANTARCTIC_ICE_UNIBE_03.jpg\")
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