‘Remember WW2 heroine of the skies’
Plant tests show South Pole was once covered by swampy rainforests
TRAGEDY Emma Windham
A VILLAGE historian has called for the world to remember the only American female air crew member killed in the Second World War, 75 years after her tragic death.
Emma Jane “Windy” Windham was killed aged 23 on March 31, 1945, when two planes collided on a training exercise.
The engineer had been posted to RAF Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, in 1944.
Gregory Edmund, of the nearby Sarratt Local History Society, said she was an important figure in women’s history and added: “She became a pin-up girl for servicewomen because of her good looks.
“Emma Jane was probably inspired by Amelia Earhart, and could have become as influential.”
ANTARCTICA was once home to swampy rainforests and had an average temperature of around 12C, according to a study.
Researchers said they have uncovered evidence from soil samples that the South Pole had a more temperate climate around 90 million years ago.
The team, which included scientists from the UK and Germany, said their analysis of preserved roots and other plant remains in the soil suggested the world at that time was warmer than previously thought.
Study author Professor Ulrich Salzmann, a paleoecologist at Northumbria University, said: “The numerous plant remains indicate that 93 to 83 million years ago, the coast of West Antarctica was a swampy landscape in which temperate rainforests grew – similar to
The team’s polar research vessel the forests that can still be found, say, on New Zealand’s South Island.”
Co-author Professor Tina van de Flierdt, from the department of earth science and engineering at Imperial College London, added: “The preservation of this 90-million-year-old forest is exceptional, but even more surprising is the world it reveals.
“Even during the months of darkness, swampy temperate rainforests were able to grow close to the South Pole, revealing an even warmer climate than we expected.”
The scientists analysed an ice core which was extracted from the seabed near the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in West Antarctica.
They discovered a well-preserved forest soil, including plant pollen, spores, a dense network of roots and the remains of flowering plants.
To get a better idea of what the
Prof van de Flierdt with her colleague
Drill site
South Pole
The South Pole region 90 million years ago climate was like at the time, the researchers assessed the conditions that would have been suitable for the plants found in the soil sample.
They found summer temperatures would have been around 19C, while water temperatures in the rivers and swamps would have reached up to 20C. The amount and intensity of rainfall in West Antarctica would have been similar to that seen in current day Wales, the researchers said.
The findings, published in the journal Nature, also indicate carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were higher than expected during the mid-Cretaceous period, which is considered to have been the age of the dinosaurs. However, the researchers are yet to figure out what caused the climate to subsequently cool to form ice sheets. Prof Lohmann said: “Our climate simulations haven’t yet provided a satisfactory answer.”
The drilling system