Spring Semester 2017

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.  Topics to be discussed will include: paleoclimatic reconstruction, climate and climatic variation, dating methods, ice cores, marine and sediments, corals, spelothems, soils, pollen, dendrochronology, documentary data, and paleoclimate models.

Prerequisite: GEOL 0800, 0860, or equivalent.  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

Lecture 2

Lecture 3

Lecture 4

Lecture 5

Lecture 6

Lecture 7

Review for Exam 1

Lecture 8

Lecture 9

Lecture 10

Lecture 11

Lecture 12

Lecture 13

Lecture 14

Lecture 15

Review for Exam 2

Lecture 16

Lecture 17

Lecture 18

Lecture 19

Lecture 20

Lecture 21

Lecture 22

Lecture 23

Lecture 24

Lecture 25

Review for Exam 3

Review for Exam 3 short answer

This site is best viewed at 1024x768 resolution.