On the surface, this daring Japanese-made smartphone darling cuts a dangerous figure, assuming a dual identity reinforced by the rigidity of its '80s-esque, hard-lined facial perimeter and the seductive curve of its aluminum back that all but screams contemporary industrial design.
These short-term global fluctuations are associated principally with natural oscillations of tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures summarized in the Nino index in the lower part of the figure. 2012 is nominally the 9th warmest year, but it is indistinguishable in rank with several other years, as shown by the error estimate for comparing nearby years.
Most models set up to try to figure out what happened during the Late Cretaceous climate changes conclude that water sank from the surface to the bottom of the ocean around Antarctica or the North Pacific.