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ESSHP: Section 2 > Lecture 16: Ice Age Earth I Northern Hemisphere > Flashcards

Lecture 16: Ice Age Earth I Northern Hemisphere Flashcards

1
Q

What is the northern hemisphere characterised by during the quaternary?

A

Glacial and interglacial stages with the waxing and waning of continental ice sheets

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2
Q

What are 3 continental ice sheets that waxed and waned during the quaternary period?

A

Laurentide, Cordilleran, British, Scandinavian, Barents, Kara, Greenland

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3
Q

What was interesting about the relationship between British Isles and Europe during glacial periods of the quaternary?

A

They were attached to each other in certain places

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4
Q

Which countries pioneered the research during the 18th and 19th centuries in to previous glacial stages of Europe?

A

Britain, Italy, Russia, NW Europe

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5
Q

What evidence did the first researchers in to European glacial periods analyse?

A

Glacier erratics, tills etc.

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6
Q

What was a problem with the different countries all pursuing the same objective but independently?

A

The result of all their research meant that they all had given different names to roughly the same time periods to mark either glacial and interglacial periods.

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7
Q

Where did the European ice sheets mostly cover?

A

Northern regions, but also alpine regions further south such as Southern Spain, Greece and Georgia

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8
Q

What was crucial for improving the universal understanding of the different names different bodies had given to the different glacial and interglacial periods?

A

Oxygen isotope records from marine cores.

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9
Q

What was the name of the global universal system for identifying glacial and interglacial periods?

A

Marine Isotope Stage (X)

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10
Q

What MIS is the last glacial period, what is it known as previously in the UK?

A

MIS 5d - MIS 2 and it was known as the Devensian

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11
Q

What MIS is the last interglacial period, what is it known as in the UK?

A

MIS 5e and it was known as the Ipswichian

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12
Q

What are the two possible marker points for the start of the Quaternary period and which is more commonly recognised?

A

1.8ma & 2.6ma (2.6ma is more commonly recognised)

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13
Q

How far back do the MIS extend back to ?

A

Pliocene Epoch (~5.3ma) within the Neogene period of the Cenozoic era

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14
Q

Where did much of the evidence for the past glacial and interglacial period come from in the UK? Why?

A

East Anglian Coast - because this area marked the boundary of where the British Ice Sheet extended down to and so there was a lot of glacial activity and therefore remaining evidence left behind

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15
Q

What sort of evidence is there in East Anglia for the last glacial period?

A

River terraces, glacial till, raised beach deposits

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16
Q

What was the evidence of glacial periods found in East Anglia combined with?

A

The law of superposition

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17
Q

Who were two important figures in the analysis of the glacial and interglacial periods within the UK? Where did they come from? what did they do?

A

Richard West and Charles Turner at Cambridge Uni analysed the evidence and then constructed an order of the different stages they identified with the corresponding type sites for where evidence of this period was found.

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18
Q

What correlation is there between type site and stage name?

A

The stage is commonly named after the place where evidence was first found

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19
Q

What did Russell Cope do?

A

He analysed the beetle fossils within the sedimentary rock record and applied knowledge of their ecological preferences to infer what the environment and climate was like at the time of the rocks dating.

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20
Q

What was the conclusion of Russell Cope’s beetle work?

A

Interstadials had occurred within the Devensian glaciations.

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21
Q

What are interstadials?

A

Short periods of relative warmth within the different glacial stages

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22
Q

What is the significance of interstadials?

A

They are an indication of how you ca have very rapid climate change within a very short time period

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23
Q

When did the British Ice Sheet reach its maximum extent during the Devensian glacial period? but…

A

21kya but there is debate around this date either side

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24
Q

What were the only areas of the British isles that remained relatively uncovered by the British Ice Sheet?

A

Southwest and Southeast predominantly

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25
Q

What was the total area and thickness of the British Ice Sheet?

A

800,000km^2 and >1.5km thick

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26
Q

What was the equivalent size of the British Ice Sheet?

A

1/3 of Greenland

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27
Q

Which ice sheet did the British ice sheet also link up with?

A

Scandinavian

28
Q

What could the British Ice Sheet influence due to its size?

A

climate

29
Q

What evidence is there for the British Ice Sheet occurring/stretching down to North Devon and Saunton Sands?

A

Pink Granite that is believed to have come from a glacier erratic down from Scotland

30
Q

What are some places that glaciers and small ice caps could have formed further south of the Ice Sheet line?

A

Exmoor and Dartmoor

31
Q

What did some argue was evidence for the previous existence of a glacier in Exmoor?

A

The landscape was too steep and deep to be carved out by river landforms only

32
Q

What is Eustatic Sea level change?

A

When the global average sea-level fluctuates with global ice volumes

33
Q

Where is evidence of previous sea level states preserved in?

A

Marine Cores

34
Q

Describe the correlation between sea level estimates from the marine cores and the glacial/interglacial stages identified in the geological record and from isotopes?

A

Strong

35
Q

How much lower was sea level expected to be from modern levels during the last glacial maximum?

A

120m

36
Q

What is isostatic sea level change?

A

Crustal rebound or depression following localised deglaciation or glaciation respectively

37
Q

What happened to the crust within the locale of ice sheets in Scotland? what did this mean for sea level?

A

around the margins of the sheet the crust was lifted up as the mantle below the glacier was displaced outwards to the margins thereby lifting them up. This caused sea level to rise

38
Q

What is happening to the crust within the locale of Scotland ice sheet deglaciation? What is this doing to sea level?

A

It is now subducting. This means that the oceans above also subduct because their ocean floor is lowering.

39
Q

What impact is the anthropogenically induced sea level change having on the isostatic sea level change?

A

It is slightly counteracting the decline, or looking at it another way, the subduction is mitigating the impact global anthropogenically induced sea level rise is having

40
Q

What are some geomorphological landforms that indicate previous sea levels?

A

wave-cut platforms located further inland where sea level used to stretch forward to, raised beach deposits and marine fossils.

41
Q

What geomorphological evidence is located in Hope’s Nose Peninsula, South Devon for previously higher sea level?

A

laminated sea beds, oyster shell beds, raised beached pebble beds

42
Q

What geomorphological evidence is located in Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea for previous sea level changes?

A

Wave-cut platforms

43
Q

What sort of curve is created when we put all evidence of sea level changes over time since the last glacial maximum together? What does it also confirm?

A

Relatively uniform rise in sea level change since the last glacial maximum. it also confirms sea level did used to be 120m below current levels.

44
Q

What is one of the most visible impacts of sea level change?

A

Lost land masses

45
Q

What was previously possible to do between Europe and British Isles, and Alaska and Russia?

A

To walk between them because a land mass used to exist

46
Q

What was the name for the stretch of land that connected Europe and British Isles during the last glacial maximum?

A

Doggerlands

47
Q

What did the presence of land masses in places that are not possible today enable to form?

A

Ice sheets

48
Q

What adverse impact did the loss of land masses have on other impacts of the earth system other than the ice sheets?

A

Affected the environments of areas which then affected the distribution of biomes. It also increased the coverage of permafrost

49
Q

What were the causes of the end of the last glacial maximum?`

A

Changes in the earth’s orbit meant increased summer insolation at higher northern latitudes. There was also increased atmospheric concentration of CO2

50
Q

What did the atmospheric concentration of CO2 increase from in the transition out of the last glacial maximum?

A

190ppm to 280ppm

51
Q

What was the structure of the LGM taken from?

A

GISP2 - Greenland Ice Core Temperature Proxy

52
Q

What was the structure of the transition from the LGM to the Holocene like?

A

Not smooth - punctuated by interstadials and stadial events

53
Q

Describe the rate of the deglaciation process from the LGM?

A

Rapid

54
Q

What was the only ice cap left after the end of the LGM?

A

One small one in Scotland’s Trossachs and Highland range

55
Q

What allowed for a temporary glacial re-advance during the Holocene? When?

A

Loch Lomond Stadial a.k.a. the Younger Dryas Stadial. This happened during a cold snap between 12.5kya and 11.5kya

56
Q

What happened to the temperate biomes as a result of the end of the LGM?

A

they expanded northwards from the glacial refugia in places such as Spain and Southern Europe

57
Q

What happened to the doggerlands as a result of the end of the LGM?

A

Disappeared

58
Q

What has been found in the rock/record of what would have been known today as the doggerlands and why?

A

Archaeological remains of mammoths, lions and human remains and tools because the area would have been very fertile previously

59
Q

What did radar technology uncover about the doggerlands more recently?

A

There were previously vast floodplains for Europe’s biggest rivers.

60
Q

What was the first type site of the LGM and who studied it?

A

Lake Windermere in Cumbria, Studied by Coope and Pennington (1977).

61
Q

What did Coope and Pennington discover from Lake Windermere about the transition from the LGM?

A

Changes in sedimentology and temperature changes

62
Q

What record did Coope and Pennington use to uncover the temperature changes from the LGM?

A

Beetles

63
Q

How much did temperature increase from the LGM identified by Coope and Pennington?

A

1 degrees Celsius per decade

64
Q

What is the Holocene sometimes known as in the British literature?

A

Flandrian

65
Q

What is the Devensian sometimes known as in the North American literature?

A

Wisconsinan

ESSHP: Section 2 (14 decks)

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