Lecture 2 (Climate and sea level changing)

Question 1

Our climate changes as …………. cycles change

Answer 1

Geological

Question 2

Our period is known as the ……… period and is how long?

Answer 2

the quaternary period and 2.6 million years long

Question 3

name ways in which records are used to study climate change

Answer 3

observing glaciers
lake sediments
peat bogs
stalactites
marine records
ice cores
geomorphology

Question 4

Glaciers

Answer 4

have 2 different period (glacial and interglacial)

interglacial is warmer

Question 5

Marine records show what

Answer 5

103 cycles between glacial and interglacial periods (in glacial periods there are higher concentrations of oxygen delta16 and less ice)

Question 6

Ice cores are used how to measure climate change?

Answer 6

Annual layers which have trapped bubbles in each layer. These bubbles show temperature, humidity and volcanic activity.

Question 7

What is is some recent proof of climate change ?

Answer 7

Paintings on the cave walls of the Sahara dessert show that around 6’000-9’000 years ago there was a completely different vegetation. ‘the green sahara’

Question 8

Name 5 things which the anthropogenic human have done to the earths climate :

Answer 8

1. Increased land surface temperature
2. Increased sea surface temperature
3. Increased marine air temperature
4. Increased the sea level
5. Decreased the summer artic sea-ice extent

Question 9

What is ‘climate anomaly’ and name one example ?

Answer 9

Climate anomaly is a difference of a future climate compared to the present climate. An area around Greenland is cooling as everywhere else is heating up. This is due to the ice melting.

Question 10

Orbital forcing

Answer 10

Orbital forcing is the effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth’s axis and shape of the orbit (see Milankovitch cycles). These orbital changes alter the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by up to 25% at mid-latitudes.

Question 11

Milankovitch cycles

Answer 11

Milankovitch cycles describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth’s movements on its climate over thousands of years. The term is named for Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković.