Earth’s Hidden Thermostat Has Regulated Climate for 60 Million Years

A new study links Earth’s long-term climate stability to a sea level–oxygen–phosphate feedback in the oceans.

Researchers found that shifts in sea level and ocean oxygen changed phosphate availability in marine waters over the past 60 million years.

Those phosphate changes influenced how much organic carbon was buried in sediments, affecting atmospheric CO2 levels.

The mechanism helps explain how Earth may have stayed within a life-supporting temperature range for tens of millions of years.