SCIENTISTS have discovered that a giant "burp" of carbon dioxide helped trigger the end of the ice age, about 17,000 years ago.
A study by St Andrews University found that changes in currents in the North Pacific caused a massive release of CO2 from the ocean into the atmosphere, helping to warm the planet sufficiently to trigger the end of the ice age.
Previously, scientists have suggested the Antarctic Ocean and North Atlantic were the only places likely to release deglacial CO2, due to their deep water formation. However, a change in rainfall over the North Pacific, caused by a monsoon and a westerly storm track, made the ocean surface saltier and less buoyant, allowing it to form deep water.
This allowed CO2 stored in the deep Pacific to be released to the atmosphere, where it helped warm the planet and melt back the ice sheets that covered the Northern Hemisphere.
Dr James Rae said: "Although the CO2 rise caused by this process was dramatic in geological terms, it happened very slowly compared to modern man-made CO2 rise."
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