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QUATERNARY SEMINAR GEOS 452, 651 (cross-listed) 2009 TOPIC: THE HISTORY OF EARTH’S CLIMATE INSTRUCTOR: Prof. James Beget Room 364 Reichardt Bldg. Office Hours Monday-Wed 9-12 am Class Meeting Schedule: REICHARDT 306 Tu Th 9:45-11:15 Course Objective: This class is designed to review the geologic record of the history of earth’s climate. Students will gain a fundamental understanding of the Earth’s climate system dynamics and climate change through an examination of the record of past intervals of global climate change through the earth’s 4.6 billion year long history. The bulk of the class will focus on the climate history of the last 65 million years and the impact of natural climate change on the environments of the Arctic. The class will conclude with a review of the processes involved in global climate change throughout Earth’s history and the potential effects of natural and anthropogenic climate forcings in the future. The class will discuss various chemical, physical and biologic processes that modulate the earth’s climate system, including solar variability, the Greenhouse effect, plate tectonic, mountain building, and other climate forcings, feedbacks and thresholds, These processes will be illustrated by discussions of major climatic events documented in the geological record. Course Organization: The class will meet twice each week. The first meeting will consist of a lecture while the second meeting will be a seminar discussion of recent scientific papers about that weeks topic. The seminar discussions will be led by students. Students will prepare a research paper on a topic of their choice, and will present the results of their individual projects at the final class meetings during the last week of the term. Grading: Students will be graded on the basis of their seminar presentations during the term (40%) and their final paper (30%0 and final seminar presentation (30%). Readings for the seminars: Most readings for the seminars will be in the form of pdfs of current scientific papers. These pdfs will be made available to all participants in the class. It is expected that all students will read all the papers, as they comprise an important part of the class. Text: “Earth’s Climate: Past and Future William F. Ruddiman Freeman Press ISBN-10: 0-7167-8490-4 Seminar Presentations: Each student will be responsible for 3-4 seminar presentations during the term. In general, two papers will be presented each week, so each student should be prepared to discuss their paper for about 30-45 minutes. A typical presentation will consist of a powerpoint talk about the paper and a class discussion of the key issues in the paper, so leave some time for class discussion. Class meeting schedule and lecture/seminar topics: Date January 22 January 27 January 29 Februar y3 Februar y5 Februar Week # 1 Organisational Meeting Topic 2 Introduction to climate change history, the origin of the earth 2 Climate change mechanisms, Icehouse versus Greenhouse 3 Pre-Cenozoic Icehouse-Greenhouse Transitions, Snowball Ea 3 SEMINAR Pre-Cenozoic Icehouse-Greenhouse Transitions, S 4 Late Cretaceous Climate, Climate effects of the KT boundary y 10 Februar y 12 Februar y 17 Februar y 19 Februar y 24 Februar y 26 March 3 March 5 March 9-14 March 17 March 19 March 24 March 26 March 31 April 2 April 7 April 9 April 14 5 Tertiary Climate SEMINAR Climate effects of the KT boundary event Early T Climate Early Tertiary Climate 5 SEMINAR Early Tertiary Climate 6 The Eocene Climate Crisis: Fresh-water Arctic Ocean? 6 SEMINAR The Eocene Climate Crisis 7 Pliocene-Miocene Climate, Moving back into the Icehouse, A Glaciation SEMINAR: Transition to Our Current Icehouse and the begi Antarctic Glaciation Spring Break 4 7 8 9 11 Pliocene Glaciation in Alaska and ElsewhereThe History of o Milankovich cycles & Pleistocene Climate -CO2 ‘Pacing’ SEMINAR: Pliocene Glaciation in Alaska and ElsewhereThe of orbital theory (continued) Pleistocene Glaciation, the orbital theory, Milankovich cycles CO2 variability SEMINAR: Pleistocene Glaciation, the orbital theory, Milank & solar and CO2 variability The Last Glacial Cycle Climate Dynamics: Millenial- to Decadal-scale Climate Oscillations SEMINAR: The Last Glacial Cycle 12 The Younger Dryas 12 SEMINAR: The Younger Dryas 13 The 8.2 k event, Neoglaciation, and the Little Ice Age 9 10 10 11 April 16 April 21 April 23 April 28 April 30 May 3 May 6 13 SEMINAR: The 8.2 k event, Neoglaciation and the Little Ice 14 Greenhouse Warming and the future of Climate Change 14 SEMINAR: Greenhouse Warming and the future of Climate C Preparation for final reports 15 SEMINAR: Student projects and presentations 15 SEMINAR: Student projects and presentations FINAL Final Projects due