GEOG 1104 Lecture 2: Atmosphere Change
12 Feb 2018
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Geos 1104 lecture 2 atmosphere change (continuation from last class) Mauna loa, hawaii: has an ~11,000 feet elevation, far from large populations which means some of the cleanest air in the world for baseline measurements of c02 levels, mauna loa shows a steep rise in co2 since 1960. Ice cores: fossil pollen/spores, lake/ocean sediments, corals, historical data, proxy-based reconstructions show both colder and warmer periods in the past 2000 years with present highest of all, little ice age ~1500 ad 1850 ad. Temperature: as an example, bubbles in ice cores from antarctica provide an ~800,000 record of past. Atm composition and temperature trends: temperatures have been higher in the past 800,000 years than ever, yet the rate of temperature warming is 10 times higher now than in the past. Sea level: global sea level increased 10-25 cm over last 100 yrs.
