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Media Relations

Glacier quest: In search of ancient ice

USA Today
Jan. 7, 2008

For 5,000 years, great tongues of ice have spread over the 3-mile-high slopes of Puncak Jaya, in the remotest reaches of this remote tropical island. Now those glaciers are melting, and Lonnie Thompson must get there before they're gone. To the American glaciologist, the ancient ice is a vanishing "archive" of the story of El Nino, the phenomenon driving much of the world's climate.

An international research team is planning a first-ever assessment of recent climate change on New Guinea, especially along the 1,200-mile mountainous spine of the southwestern Pacific island. Michael Prentice, an Indiana University paleoclimatologist, or climate historian, believes temperature increases in the New Guinea uplands have far exceeded -- "really out of sight" -- the 1-degree Fahrenheit average rise recorded globally in the past century.

Read the entire story at: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2008-01-07-new-guinea-glacier_N.htm

Learn more about Indiana University Bloomington at: http://www.iub.edu

Learn more about the IU Department of Geological Sciences at: http://www.indiana.edu/~geosci/

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