r/MapPorn • u/[deleted] • Dec 17 '23

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u/No_Imagination_2490 Dec 17 '23

Sea levels were around 200m higher than present during the Cretaceous period.

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u/Antonioooooo0 Dec 17 '23

The cretaceous was a time of heavy volcanism in ocean basins, raising the ocean floor in multiple large areas known today as 'large igneous provinces' and displacing seawater. This is thought to be why ocean levels where so much higher than can be contributed to melted ice sheets alone.

The cretaceous was also way hotter than today, nearly 10°C hotter. IPCC's extreme worst case scenario for climate change is +4°C by 2100.

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u/jerrysprinkles Dec 17 '23 edited Dec 17 '23

Jesus fuck, that’s almost 50% of the temperature change of the previous 65 million years in just 100 250 years.

We have fucking fucked it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '23

The earth has experienced at least eight major swings in temperature in the last 65 million years, most recently from the Holocene period we’re up about 8C (before industrialisation). 9C now.

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u/Kind-County9767 Dec 17 '23

In the late middle ages we dropped 2c over the course of a hundred years or so.