WTG - Chapter 2

Question 1

1. PETM stands for…

Answer 1

Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

Question 2

1. Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

Answer 2

• 56 Million years ago global temperatures were much higher by about 6 celsius.
• Caused by the release of clathrates.
• It is thought that volcanism in Greenland and Northern Canada may have contributed to the release of large amounts of methane (a greenhouse gas) that resulted in global warming.

Question 3

1. Clathrates

Answer 3

Frozen methane deposits found in sediment in the deep ocean.

Question 4

2. What is the Pleistocene Ice Age?

Answer 4

The most recent ice age, that took place the Pleistocene epoch.

Question 5

2. How did the Pleistocene Ice Age start?

Answer 5

• It started because:
  of the detachment of Antarctica creating a circumpolar current cooling the south pole
  the closing of the panama canal increasing the strength of the Gulf stream and bringing more precipitation to the North pole so as to increase glacier cover
  ‘scrubbing’ of CO2 from the atmosphere through the monsoons hitting the newly formed Himalayan upland areas and the growth of the Tibetan Plateau

         and the shifting of Earth's tilt causing us to get less energy from the Sun during the winter on the poles.

Question 6

3. What is the Eemian Interglacial?

Answer 6

It is a period between glaciations where the world was several degrees warmer than today

characterized by temperate climates and tropical animals in far northern latitudes and sea levels rose 4-6 cm.
But due to global warming the temperature has been increased even more than the temperature during Eemian interglacial period.

Question 7

4. What is the Younger Dryas

Answer 7

The Younger Dryas is a cold snap at the end of the Pleistocene
where lake Agassiz-Ojibway the (largest freshwater lake in the world) flooded into the Arctic ocean.
This is thought to have halted the Gulf stream from bringing warm tropical waters to the north bringing a very cold snap to the northern Hemisphere and extending downward which occurred over a matter of years, 11,700 years ago.

Question 8

5. What do these events say about our climate and why is this so important?

Answer 8

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