Paleoclimates : understanding climate change past and present / Thomas M. Cronin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cronin, Thomas M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Paleoclimatology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (465 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

The field of paleoclimatology relies on physical, chemical, and biological proxies of past climate changes that have been preserved in natural archives such as glacial ice, tree rings, sediments, corals, and speleothems. Paleoclimate archives obtained through field investigations, ocean sediment coring expeditions, ice sheet coring programs, and other projects allow scientists to reconstruct climate change over much of earth's history. When combined with computer model simulations, paleoclimatic reconstructions are used to test hypotheses about the causes of climatic change, such

Contents:

Contents; Tables; Preface; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; 1| Paleoclimatology and Modern Challenges; Introduction; The Earth's Climate System; Causes of Climate Change; Feedbacks; Modern Challenges and Paleoclimatology; Perspective; 2| Methods in Paleoclimatology; Introduction; Archives of Past Climate Changes; Geochronology; Proxies in Paleoclimatology; Paleoclimate Modeling; Perspective; 3| Deep Time: Climate from 3.8 Billion to 65 Million Years Ago; Introduction; Early Earth, Faint Sun Paradox, and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide; Snowball Earth: Neoproterozoic Climate Cycles

Phanerozoic Climate ChangeJurassic and Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events and Greenhouse Climate; Mesozoic Climate and Pole- to- Equator Thermal Gradients; Perspective; 4| Cenozoic Climate; Introduction; Cenozoic Paleoclimate Programs and Proxies; Major Features of Cenozoic Climate; Mechanisms of Cenozoic Climate Change; Extreme Climate States; Perspective; 5| Orbital Climate Change; Introduction; Astronomical Processes and Calculations; Historical Development of Orbital Theory; Paleoclimate Records of Orbital Variability; Uncertainties, Mysteries, and Paradoxes in Orbital Theory

Orbital Hypotheses and MechanismsPerspective; 6| Glacial Millennial Climate Change; Introduction; Meridional Overturning Circulation and Hysteresis; Chronology for Millennial- Scale Climate; Dansgaard- Oeschger Events; Heinrich Events; Relationship Between Heinrich and Dansgaard-Oeschger Events; Causes of Glacial-Age Millennial Climate Events; Perspective; 7| Millennial Climate Events During Deglaciation; Introduction; Deglacial Terminology and the Last Glacial Maximum; The Onset of Deglaciation; Millennial Climate Reversals During Deglaciation; Mechanisms to Explain Deglacial Climate Changes

Older TerminationsPerspective; 8| Holocene Climate Variability; Introduction; Holocene Paleoclimatology: Terms; Solar Insolation and Tropical Atmospheric Processes; Holocene Records of Atmospheric Composition and Circulation; Ocean Variability and Climate; Holocene Sea Leveland Ice Volume; Causes of Holocene Variability; Perspective; 9| Abrupt Climate Events; Introduction; Defining Abrupt Climate Change; Models of Freshwater Forcing of Climate; Continental Records of Glacial Lake Drainage; Glacial Geology and Geomorphology Applied to Abrupt Climate; Glacial Lakes and Abrupt Climate Events

Paleoceanographic Changes in Marginal SeasAbrupt Change During the 8.2- ka Event; Tropical Forcing of Abrupt Events; Perspective; 10| Internal Modes of Climate Variability; Introduction; Indices and Terminology; Indices and Terminology; El Niño- Southern Oscillation; Pacific Decadal and Interdecadal Pacific Oscillations; Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation; North Atlantic Oscillation and Pacific North American Mode; Arctic Oscillation; Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode; Perspective; 11| The Anthropocene I: Global and Hemispheric Temperature; Introduction

Before the Anthropocene: The Little Ice Age

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-431) and index.

ISBN:

9780231516365

0231516363

OCLC:

826476334