The Drake Passage Channel Deepening the Antarctic Chill
05.09.2005 - Other
A new analysis of marine geophysical data conducted by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists reveals that South America and Antarctica split apart very rapidly in geological time, forming the Drake Passage. This eventually led to the formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the world's largest deep current (transporting some 130 million cubic metres of water through the Drake Passage every second).
The opening of the Drake Passage could have given birth to a major global cooling event and be the cause of the growth of the Antarctic ice sheet around 33-34 million years ago. The major findings of this study have been published in the latest issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
