image: A typical piece of driftwood on the Arctic Ocean shore of northern Greenland is sawed up for wood-identification and 14C-dating. The wood has been torn and worn during its 5,000 km and 6+ years of travel across the ocean, embedded in sea ice. This particular piece of wood has been identified as spruce, and probably grew in the drainage area of Mackenzie or Yukon c. 2,000 years ago. It signals presence of multiyear sea ice and transportation from the western Arctic, as seen today especially during periods with a negative index for the Arctic Oscillation. This traveling route became prevalent c. 5,000 years ago. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Aug. 5, 2011, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Svend Funder of the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues was titled, "A 10,000-Year Record of Arctic Ocean Sea-Ice Variability -- View from the Beach." view more
Credit: Image © Science/AAAS