the quaternary period Flashcards
what is the glacial-interglacial cycle?
growth and decay of continental ice sheets
prediction of average temps by 2100
5-12 standard deviation above the mean holocene temp
what are erratics?
rock that differs in size and type from those in the area, often big
what is catastrophism?
- rocks covering landscape, product of the biblical flood
- earth’s surface the result of succession of catastrophes
- features form during individual events
what is uniformitarianism?
earth history dominated by small-scale events and processes ‘gradualism’
what period produced the modern geologists?
Scottish enlightenment period
what did Kuhn say in 1787?
that erratics are dumped by glaciers
what was proposed in 1839?
shorelines and raised beaches of marine origin
what was proposed in 1840?
shorelines were cut by freeze thaw processes of an ice-damned loch, created by a glacier which formed during the YD
when and who introduced the concept of orbital eccentricity?
1842- Joseph Adhemar
what did James Croll do in 1864?
wrote a paper suggesting that variations on eccentricity could drive cyclic ice ages
evidence for rapid c.c in the quaternary
- precession is the shortest of the Milankovitch cycles
- glacials punctuated by sub-Milankovitch millennial events interstadials
- last glacial-interglacial transition was not smooth
what is the multi-proxy approach?
don’t rely on one type of evidence
what was the YD?
- 100 years long
- period of rapid cooling in the late Pleistocene
- just after abrupt warming that brought the last ice age to an end
- meltwater pulses
when was the 8.2 kyr event?
after the YD
