GEOG 2051 : Geog Test 3
Document Summary
Includes: glaciers - mountain ice caps and ice sheets, greenland antarctica, semi permanent sea ice - pack ice, permafrost - _______ geography controlled entirely by climate. Temperature is the resultant of an energy budget (ex. Earth temperatures were a bit warmer (8-10 c) than they are today: cryosphere would be much smaller then, than it is today. Started to have much larger fluctuations in temperature. Recent (current trend of cooling) polar period 40 million years ago: temps since that time have been dropping, not consistent though. Continuous change for the past 40 million years: dropped but also warmed. 10-12 million years ago: current ice caps began to form, temp was cold enough, began to grow and expand ice caps that cover antarctica. 2 million years ago: start of quaternary period. We are at the peak of a last glacial period. 10,000 years ago marks the start of the holocene: most recent geological time period, start of current interglacial, warm period.
