What causes massive shifts in Atlantic iceberg activity? Here’s a new theory

 Some Heinrich events – periodic massive iceberg surges into the North Atlantic that were previously thought to have weakened the global ocean conveyor belt circulation and sent Earth’s climate into the deep freeze – may actually have been caused by changes in atmospheric circulation patterns, say a team of researchers that includes two Texas A&M University professors.

Matthew Schmidt, associate professor of oceanography, and Ping Chang, professor of oceanography and atmospheric science and director of the Texas Center for Climate Studies, along with colleagues from Georgia Tech, Princeton, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Cambridge and Germany’s University of Bremen, have had their findings published in the latest issue of Nature Geoscience.

More from the College of Geoscience.