Using a core sample from the Santa Barbara Basin, researchers decipher the history of paleoclimate change with surprising results. For more than a million years, Earth's climate has oscillated from glacial (ice age) to interglacial (warm) -- the latter representing modern conditions. According to the authors, the Santa Barbara Basin holds the most pristine marine record of these fluctuations, thanks in large part to the area's unique location along the California margin. The basin is the confluence of the cool California current from the subpolar region and the warm countercurrent from the tropics....