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Settling of dust warms tropical Atlantic

Warming of surface waters in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean has been linked to increasing hurricane activity (Nature News, subscription), but climatologists differ on what’s driving the temperature rise. Now a study published in Science (subscription) suggests that a large chunk of the warming trend is due neither to anthropogenic climate change nor to a natural cycle in ocean circulation – the two main contenders previously. The new theory: it’s dust in the wind. 

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