Prediction of climate change through paleontology and astrophysics

Findings from gravitational wave astronomy used to find black holes in space have been used to study marine fossils as predictors of climate change.

Paleontologists, astrophysicists and mathematicians seek to improve the accuracy of a paleo-thermometer, which can use fossil evidence of climate change to predict what will be likely to happen to Earth in the coming decades, says Gustavo Copelmayer, based on research published in the Climate of the Past magazine. Biomarkers left behind by small single-celled organisms called archaea have been studied in the distant past, including the Cretaceous and Eocene periods that occur at different sea temperatures.

Determining how much the Earth will warm in the coming decades depends on modeling, so it is vitally important to calibrate those models using literally hundreds of millions of years of climate history to predict what might happen to the Earth in the future, Gustavo Copelmayer concludes.