Scientists took core samples in Greenland and found evidence that the climate there was once tropical....why?

Question

I also heard that mammoths were found frozen in such a good condition that their flesh was not rotted....how could that happen?

Answer 1

Firstly for things to be preserved they need to have HOT and DRY or COLD and DRY conditions.....the first has helped preserve the mummies in Egypt and South America and the latter helps perserve things like mammoths and the iceman found a few years ago...its basically conditions bacteria and fungi dont' like, which are the things that decomose things.

For the other thing, yes world climates have changed over time, but more importantly the continents have moved. I know that Antarctica was actually origianally positioned over the NORTH pole and has gradually drifted south to it present position over the SOUTH pole region. THere is evidence of massive forests that covered Antarctica too and life did not really die out on Antarctica until only about 3 million years ago...this is short in geological time (and it was previously thought to be 10 million years that life pretty much died out there due to the cold)...there are also fossilised dinosaurs found there too.
So all places in the world have been in different places over the last ...hmmmm quite a few million years ago..ie 250million years +. There is also evidence that Britain was once tropical too with palm trees and shallow tropical seas around it.

Answer 2

Tectonic plate movement is not the answer. It is due to the fact that the earth has over all gone through warm and cooler periods of time. Millions of years ago the earth as a whole was a lot warmer than it was today and then cooled and then warmed again in a cyclic events. It is also hypothesised that these changes have driven evolution of both animals and the environment to what it is today. Also during the Carboniferous period the earth was so warm that there were no polar ice caps. This has happened many times over the earths history.
As for mammoths, they would have died in very cold conditions and frozen before their bodies could decompose and thus preserving them.

Answer 3

The crust of the earth is broken into plates. These plates are moving very slowly by riding on the magma. Plates have moved from tropical climates to polar climates, taking their fossils with them.
The mammoths' flesh was frozen at such low temperature that the flesh was not damaged-somewhat similar to why your beef does not rot in your freezer.

Answer 4

The climate has changed from hot to cold many times in the Earth's history. Sometimes a region used to be hot because it started off near the equator but due to plate tectonics they have drifted away. Other times it is the climate that has changed.

If a mammoth died and was quickly buried by snow and remained in ice it could be preserved as did happen a few times.

Answer 5

Earth has gone through many natural warming and cooling cycles over the billions of years it has existed. We are presently in a natural warming cycle. This fact has led to endless debates about how much the CO2 added by humans to the air really matters. There is good evidence that it hardly matters at all. There is also some evidence that it does matter enough to worry about. As you can tell from my choice of words, I tend to be in the "it doesn't matter that much" camp.

Answer 6

Tectonic plates have moved.

I think UK used to be tropical once too.