EAS100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Taklamakan Desert, Ferrari 250, Mesothermal

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Course: EAS100
• Professor: Virginia Garcia Millan

Document Summary

Definition: time-averaged weather conditions at a place on the earth"s surface. Current climate classification schemes divide earth"s surface into climate zones. K ppen (k ppen-geiger) scheme of climate classification (appendix e in. Hot deserts (b) or cold deserts (e) Belts of low rainfall correspond to regions of divergence. Historic climate change: the last few hundred years. Overall warming trend over last 150 yrs. Similar proxy data types as earlier changes (historical, biological, geological, isotopic) Pollen and plant distribution of since 18 ka. Glacial erosion and deposition in areas no longer glaciated. Records indicate at least 3 advances and retreats. 6 layers of ice-rafted debris (ird) deposited during last glaciation. Heinrich events: catastrophic calving of ice sheet. Many species of plankton have restricted temperature range. Species alternate in cores, indicating changing temperature. Isotopes record many glacial and interglacial intervals in last 2 ma. Dominant period in last 800,000 yrs is ~100,000 yrs. Prior to that, dominant period was ~ 40,000 yrs.