{"id":10145,"date":"2017-02-21T21:20:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T02:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/?p=10145"},"modified":"2017-02-21T21:20:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T02:20:12","slug":"2017-ancient-cave-reveals-recent-droughts-in-the-middle-east-were-most-severe-for-over-a-millennium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/2017\/02\/2017-ancient-cave-reveals-recent-droughts-in-the-middle-east-were-most-severe-for-over-a-millennium\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;2017 Ancient cave reveals recent droughts in the Middle East were most severe for over a millennium&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A recent study on droughts in the Middle East shows that the recent droughts that have plagued the area are the worst in at least 1100 years, according to a story this week in the American Geophysical Union blog. \u00a0The scientists in the study collected a stalagmite from a cave in Iraq which contained growth rings that traced the rise and fall of precipitation in the area. \u00a0Using isotope dating they were able to determine the\u00a0first ever detailed climate reconstruction for the eastern part of Middle East\u2019s most important region for agriculture \u2013 the Fertile Crescent \u2013 extending back 2,400 years. \u00a0The research showed the recent droughts are the most severe going back to about 1,1o0 years ago. \u00a0You can read more about how they did the study at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/geospace\/2017\/02\/16\/ancient-cave-reveals-recent-droughts-middle-east-severe-millennium\/\">https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/geospace\/2017\/02\/16\/ancient-cave-reveals-recent-droughts-middle-east-severe-millennium\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you are interested in how they do the radiocarbon analysis, this article from EarthSky might be helpful:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/earth\/what-is-radiocarbon-dating?mc_cid=b855723a0c&amp;mc_eid=b22da16cce\">https:\/\/earthsky.org\/earth\/what-is-radiocarbon-dating?mc_cid=b855723a0c&amp;mc_eid=b22da16cce<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10146\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10146\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/files\/2017\/02\/Gejkar-cave-1-small-300x169.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10146\" src=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/files\/2017\/02\/Gejkar-cave-1-small-300x169-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/files\/2017\/02\/Gejkar-cave-1-small-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/files\/2017\/02\/Gejkar-cave-1-small-300x169-245x138.jpg 245w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10146\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers collecting a stalagmite from Gejkar Cave in Iraq. Climate reconstruction using the stalagmite has revealed that recent droughts there were more severe than previously thought, and therefore possibly an important contributing factor for the turmoil in Syria.<br \/>Credit: University of Reading.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent study on droughts in the Middle East shows that the recent droughts that have plagued the area are the worst in at least 1100 years, according to a story this week in the American Geophysical Union blog. \u00a0The scientists in the study collected a stalagmite from a cave in Iraq which contained growth [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":10146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-and-ag-in-the-news","category-drought","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10147,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10145\/revisions\/10147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}