Tabular iceberg. The production of tabular icebergs is a major
mechanism of mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Icebergs
are calved during both rapid ice-shelf collapse and as part of
the normal transfer of mass through the ice sheet to the
surrounding ocean. Credit: Julian Dowdeswell. Study successfully
reconstructed temperature from the deep sea to reveal how global
ice volume has varied over the glacial-interglacial cycles of
the past 1.5 million years. The only way we can work out what
the likely effects of the changes we are making to the climate
will be is by finding analogues in the geological past. That
depends on having an accurate picture of the past behaviour of
the climate system." Scientists have announced a major
breakthrough in understanding the Earth’s climate machine by
reconstructing highly accurate records of changes in ice volume
and deep-ocean temperatures over the last 1.5 million years. The
study, which is reported , offers new insights into a decades-
long debate about how the shift