The past of Greenland

2007/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika
• Ekologia
• Klima
• Paleontologia
• Arkeologia

Greenland means green land, and in its day it was so. But, according to the new footprints, those times ended before the expected. In the southeast of the island a hole of two kilometers has been made in the ice and the DNA contained in the bottom mud has been extracted. In this way, remains of living beings have been obtained from 800 to 450,000 years ago. It should be noted that the DNA obtained is one of the oldest.

These remains have not found the DNA of animals larger than insects, since it is easily destroyed, but they have identified a lot of plants and insects such as the alder, the fir, the pine and the yew, and the fauna associated with these trees such as beetles, flies, spiders, butterflies, etc. At present there are similar ecosystems in the forests of eastern Canada and Sweden.

However, dating does not conform to what climate models suggest. In fact, for 450,000 years there have been no plant remains, which seems to indicate that the area has been subjected to ice ever since. However, scientists considered that in the last interglacial period (130,000 to 116,000 years ago) the southern ice of Greenland melted, so the sea level increased between 5 and 6 meters. However, if the calculations made in this research are correct, researchers should seek another reason to explain the rise in sea level.