Scientists Return to the Cretaceous to Study the Evolution of Hot Climates

Against the backdrop of continued global high temperatures, scientists are turning their attention to ancient greenhouse periods such as the Cretaceous, using geological records to seek references for future climate change. Wang Chengshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor at China University of Geosciences (Beijing), said he hopes to provide scientific support for global climate change research through new archival records. The article explains that the Cretaceous was an important greenhouse era dating from about 145 million to 66 million years ago, when the climate was warmer and sea levels were higher, with similarities to today’s highemissions scenario. Compared with ocean sediments, lake sediments can provide higherresolution paleoclimate information, so the research team focused its work on the Songliao Basin, which preserves one of the world’s most complete terrestrial Cretaceous records. Since the drilling of Songke 1 Well began in 2006, the related scientific research project has spanned 16 years, forming a continuous Cretaceous core record and achieving important progress in multiple drilling wells. Through these cores, the research team hopes to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of carbon cycling, sealevel change, and climate fluctuations under ancient hightemperature environments, providing a basis for current climate research and the "dual carbon" goals.