Journal Star, Peoria, Monday, Sept. 12, 1994
Sci-Tech Briefs, Study: Ocean iron helped boost climate

NEW YORK -- Results of an experiment that added iron to a 
25-square-mile patch of the Pacific Ocean bolster the 
hypothesis that oceanic iron supply influenced ancient climate, 
a researcher says.

The iron increased the amount of photosynthesis by tiny 
floating plants called phytoplankton, Kenneth Coale and other 
scientists report in the Sept. 8 issue of the journal Nature.

Photosynthesis consumes carbon dioxide, a so-called greenhouse 
gas that promotes warming. In the past, the hypothesis 
suggests, iron blowing continually into some parts of the ocean 
in dust from deserts or volcanoes encouraged photosynthesis, 
leading to drawdowns of atmospheric carbon dioxide that, in 
turn, led to colder climate.

Previous research shows that ice ages were associated with more 
arid regions, more windblown iron, higher amounts of ocean 
photosynthesis and lower carbon dioxide levels than warmer 
periods were, said Coale, of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories 
in Moss Landing, Calif.

The new experiment was conducted about 300 miles south of the 
Galapagos Islands, in one of several large ocean areas where 
scientists suspected that photosynthesis was being hindered by 
lack of iron. Coale said the work was not intended to support a 
proposal to dump iron in the ocean to head off global warming, 
an idea he called irresponsible and infeasible. END OF TEXT

I thought this might give some new perspective on the Earth's 
previous Ice Ages. An interesting article in my view, so I hope 
people find it provocative.

Stan Zaske
Peoria, IL.