Climate Zone Observations

The ancient Precambrian to Palaeozoic magnetic North Pole, shown on each of the small Earth models as red dots centred within the North Polar Region, is shown to be located within what is now eastern Mongolia. It can be seen that this polar region was centred over the ancient Tethys Sea, extending from the equator to the North Pole. From there, there was then an apparent northward migration of the pole through Siberia to its present location within the modern Arctic Ocean.

Rupturing of the northern Pangaea supercontinent began during late-Permian to early-Triassic times. This event destabilised the ancient Tethys Sea within the ancient North Polar Region. The modern Arctic Ocean then began opening during the early Jurassic and has continued opening to the present-day. A marine ice-sheet is now located over the Arctic Ocean, which is subject to seasonal melting and freezing.

Similarly, the ancient Precambrian and Palaeozoic magnetic South Pole, shown as blue dots centred within the ancient South Polar Region, is shown located in what is now west Central Africa. As the Pangaean supercontinent commenced rupturing
the various modern continents slowly migrated north relative to the ancient South Pole.

During this migration the Permo-Carboniferous south polar ice-sheet, if present, was disrupted and fragmented. The South Polar Region then crossed onto the opening Atlantic Ocean during the and It is interesting to note that this migration of the polar region onto the Atlantic Ocean coincides precisely with the duration of the Mesozoic Era, which may have been accompanied by changes to sea levels and global climate.

It is also shown on the small Earth models that during Cretaceous to present-day times, Antarctica migrated from equatorial regions into the South Polar Region before crossing onto the South Pole. During this migration, a South Polar ice-sheet was progressively established on Antarctica as a permanent continental ice-sheet. This continental migration and establishment of the ice-sheet coincides with the duration of the Cenozoic Era.

From this study what must be appreciated is, by definition, the North and South Polar Regions must remain centred over each of the ancient poles. This means that, as the continents migrate, relative to the ancient poles, the ancient glacigenic rocks—shown as small red dots on each of the models—remain firmly attached to the continents and migrate along with the respective migrating continents.

In reality, what would be expected is that during migration of a continent through a polar region, the leading edge of an established ice-sheet would melt and break-up as it moves out of the respective polar region. Similarly, the trailing edge of the ice-sheet would then freeze and increase in area as it moves into the respective polar region.

A further important point to note is that opening of the modern oceans beneath an ancient ice-sheet exposes the ice to the influence of circulating ocean currents. This then changes the ice-sheet from a permanent continental sheet—such as the modern Antarctic ice-sheet—to a seasonal marine sheet—such as the modern Arctic ice-sheet. This will then affect the presence, size, and extent of ice cover within these zones and will directly affect global climate, sea levels, and the distribution or decline of various plant and animal species.