Spring Semester 2010

The goal of this course is to present an overview of the methods used to reconstruct the earth's climate history and the techniques used to determine the timing of environmental changes.  Paleoclimate data from proxy records, such as ice cores or tree rings, provides a longer perspective on climatic variability than is possible from instrumental or historical records.  The graph above shows the rapid increase in the average Northern Hemisphere temperature during the last century with respect to the last 1000 years, and the dramatic warming in the most recent decades.  Is this change related to natural variability or caused by human activities?  Particular emphasis will be given to the climatic changes during the late Cenozoic – the time of the ice ages.  Topics to be discussed will include: paleoclimatic reconstruction, climate and climatic variation, dating methods, ice cores, marine sediments and corals, lake sediments, spelothems, soils, pollen analysis, dendrochronology, documentary data, and paleoclimate models.

Prerequisite: GEOL 0800.  This class is aimed at upper division undergraduates and may be taken by graduate students with permission from the instructor.  Graduate students register as GEOL 2203 Paleoecology. 

How has the distribution of glaciers, deserts, and lakes changed through time and how is this related to climate variation?  How do you determine how precipitation has varied in the past from lake sediments?  These and other questions regarding climate change will be addressed in this class.

Syllabus

Lecture 1 Jan 8, 2008

Lecture 2 Jan 10, 2008

Lecture 3 Jan 15, 2008

Lecture 4 Jan 17, 2008

Lecture 5 Jan 22, 2008

Lecture 6 Jan 29, 2008

Lecure 7 Jan 31, 2008

Lecture 8 Feb 5, 2008

Lecture 9 Feb 7, 2008

Lecture 10 Feb 12, 2008

Lecture 11 Feb 14, 2008

Review sheet for exam 1

Video Presentation Feb 21, 2008

Lecture 12 Feb 26, 2008

Lecture 13 Feb 28, 2008

Lecture 14 March 4, 2008

Video Presentation March 6, 2008

Spring Break March 11 and 13 No Class

Lecture 15 March 18, 2008

Lecture 16 March 20, 2008

Lecture 17 March 25, 2008

Lecture 18 March 27, 2008

Lecture 19 April 1, 2008

Lecture 20 April 3, 2008

Lecture 21 April 15, 2008

Anthropocene

COHMAP

Rapid Climate Change

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