Climate

modification
GO 112
GEOMORPHOLOGY

CASSIAN, A.N
 Paleoclimatology
 Content
 Methods of studying past climatic variability
 Background to past climatic variability
 Theories on the past climatic variability
 CLIMATE CHANGE
concept
 Climate change has bee defined on
the basis of different contexts.
 In the context of the Environmental
Policy; climate change is used to
refers to the ongoing changes of
the modern /current climate defined
by Rise in surface temperature
(global warming)
Concept cont’d
 In UNFCCC and others, the term climate
change denotes human caused/induced
climate changes and uses climate
variability for changes not caused by
human.
 In our case
Climate change refers to the variation in
the earth’s or regional climates over time.
It’s a change in average weather
conditions, or in the time variation of
weather around longer-term average
condition
 Paleoclimatology
 Since it is not possible to go back in
time to see what climates were like,
scientists use imprints created during
past climate, known as proxies.

 the study of past climates is then

called Paleoclimatology
Methods for studying Paleoclimatology

 Several ways are used to study past climatic

variation:
i. Meteorological instrument records
These measured temperature ,precipitation,
atmospheric pressure and wind direction.
Shortfalls
 Method too young as it just came in use
only few decades ago.
 The in methods is capable of monitoring
only small area of the earth at the same
time
Concept cont’d
 Instrument were used for location in populated
Europe and North America, hence very little
climatic information from Africa and other poor
countries exist.

ii. Written documentation and descriptive

accounts.
Written description on some weather
phenomenon such as reports on floods,
droughts, prevailed characteristics of seasons
etc.
 The major problem is that they too subjective
and brings difficulty in interpreting them
 Descriptive Accounts
Numerous amount of proxy data can be
obtained from physical and biological data.
These include:
a. Ice core records/glacial ice deposit- can be
analyzed for trapped gas, stable isotope
ratios, and pollen trapped within the layers
to infer past climate.
 Gas bubbles trapped in the ice tells about
the state of atmosphere at the time when
they were captured
b. Tree rings- can be counted to
determine age.
 The thickness of each ring can be
used to infer fluctuations in
temperature and precipitation, since
optimal conditions for the particular
species will result in more growth, and
thus thicker rings for a given year.
Scars and burn marks can indicate
past natural events such as fire.
c. Sediment cores- can be analyzed in
many ways.
Sediment laminations, or layers, can
indicate sedimentation rate through
time.
Charcoal trapped in sediments can
indicate past fire events
Remains of organisms such as diatoms,
foraminifera, microbiota, and pollen
within sediment can indicate changes in
past climate, since each species has a
limited range of habitable conditions
d. Inorganic marine sediments
Type of proxies falling under this category
includes clay minerals, Aeolian dusts,
fossilized pollen and ice rafted debris.
 Back ground to past climatic
variability
Climatologist uses variety of
methods to study past variation in
climatic conditions
Studies shows that global
temperature has ever been warmer
than today for 8 °C to 15 °C
 in the last billion years ago the
warmer condition became interrupted
by glacial periods in 925,800,680,450,
 from Pleistocene or ice age ( i.e. 2,000,
000 to 14,000 yrs) North America, Asia
and Europe were covered by ice which
was dynamic showing retreat due to
increased warmth and advancement due
to increases coldness.
At this era, the coldest global temperature
was about 4 °C to 5 °C colder than today.
The recent glacial retreat called Holocene
epoch which started about 14000 yrs ago
is still on
From 5000 to 3000 average
temperature was 1 °C to 2 °C warmer
than today and climatologist called
this period climatic optimum
The period was marked by earth’s
great civilization.
During this era Nile river had three
times its present volume, indicating
that almost the whole of the area was
almost tropical
In 300 to 2000 BC years, global cooling
which caused a great drop in the sea
level occurred.
The period is also said to a period of
emergence of a number of islands and
coastal areas we see today.
In 2000 to 1500 BC yrs the earth became
warm again followed by colder condition
from 1500 to 750 BC caused by growth
in glacial ice in the continental and
alpine land
 years from 1850s to the present
are considered periods of general
warming due to increasing global
warming
 in few years from 1860s to 1930s,
the below graph show consistent
negative temperatures
Temperatures has kept increasing
since then.
 THEORIES ON PAST CLIMATIC
VARIABILITY
1) The Astronomical theory /
Milankovitch's Theory
Just like many other theory, this
theory is also named after Serbian
Astronomer, Millutin Milankovich
Milankovich puts forward that
variations in climate is caused by the
change in Earth's orbit overtime.
According to millankovitch,
changes in climate is a result of
change in three of the Earth's
orbital characteristics
eccentricity,
obliquity, and the
precession
Eccentricity: refers
to changes in
the shape of
Earth's orbit
around the sun.
It is considered
that the earth’s
orbit is not
perfectly circular,
it is elliptical
As the eccentricity of the orbit
becomes greater, the more the
variations in solar energy received at
the top of the atmosphere between
perihelion and aphelion to the sun.
Currently the earth is experiencing low
eccentricity
 Precession
 Precession is the
earth’s tendency to
'wobble' with respect to
the direction of its
rotational axis
(precession).
 Earth’s rotational axis
points in different
directions through time
 One circular path takes
25,700 years
 Caused by gravitational
pull of Sun + Moon
 It is an axial
rotation that
completes its
circle at about 26,
000 years (i.e. 25,
700 years)
 Obliquity
Obliquity refers to the change in the tilt
of the earth’s axis
Overtime the earth’s tilt relative to a
perpendicular to the orbital plane of
the earth changes
The change take place at about very
41000 years.
 The angle of tilt fluctuates
from 22.1 ° and 24.5° hence
influence latitudinal
distribution of solar radiation
 2. Geophysical theory
 The theory describes climate change
in relation to the geological dynamic
of those eras.
 The theory argues that climate change
might had originated from the change
in the energy released by the sun itself
due to inception by some materials
and phenomenon
 The theory states the cause for climate
change as resulting from the following
i. The Orogeny –the process of mountain
building
it puts forward that:
Due to tectonic process and continental
drifting, mountains were formed which in
turn lead to the following:
a. Mountain uplift encouraged chemical
weathering which took CO2 from the
atmosphere (sequestration) to react with
water, hence reduced it from the air leading to
global cooling.
b. Land uplift increased land to be covered by
snow

ii. Epeirogeny or disposition/displacement of

land masses.
 Continental drifting forced land masses into
the pole hence increasing ice covered land
masses
 Continental drifting distorted the arrangement
of continents which affected ocean circulation
which is responsible for latitudinal
transportation of heat.
 OTHER THEORIES ON CLIMATE
CHANGE
 Other theories which tries to describe the
nature and causes of climate change include:
1. Anthropogenic Global Warming
2. Bio-thermostat
3. Cloud Formation and Albedo
4. Human Forcings Besides Greenhouse Gases
5. Ocean Currents
6. Planetary Motion
7. Solar Variability
 Anthropogenic Global
Warming
Its assumption is that human
emissions of greenhouse gases,
principally carbon dioxide (CO2),
methane, and nitrous oxide leads
to increase in global
temperatures

Rise in temperature due to

anthropologic causes is termed
as enhanced green house effects
 Bio-thermostat
 The theory puts forward that, rising
temperatures and levels of carbon dioxide
(CO2) in the atmosphere trigger/forces
biological and chemical responses that have a
cooling effect, like a natural thermostat.
i.e. as CO2 increases it triggers plant growth
which in turn will consume CO2 and reduce its
content in the atmosphere.
Bio thermostatic mechanisms include
i. Carbon sequestration- plant’s take-
down of CO2 to its roots, shoots,
trunks leaves etc.
ii. Carbonyl Sulfide
 Carbonyl sulfide is a gas which is
reflectant of solar radiation.
 Therefore, biological processes
taking place in the soils produces
COS which goes to the stratosphere
where it is transformed into sulfate
aerosols
 Sulfate aerosols reflects back the
solar radiation and cause the cooling
effects of the earth.
Diffuse light

The theory assumes that as CO2

increases in the atmosphere it
promote greater plant productivity,
 plants emit greater amounts of
gases converted into aerosols
called “biosols.”
Biosols act as cloud condensation
nuclei which create new clouds that
reflect more incoming solar
radiation back to space, thereby
cooling the planet
Iodocompounds