GEOLOGY 111 — GLACIOLOGY, ICE AGES, & CLIMATE CHANGE FALL 2002
Steven Wojtal - Office: Carnegie 416
Office hours: Tues & Thurs 10:00-11:30 a.m., or by appointment
Scheduled Meetings - Lectures: Mon - Wed - Fri 1:30 - 2:20 p.m.
Course Aim: To introduce you to the scientific study of the earth’s climate system and the history of climate change on earth.
Glaciers are not stable or static features. The ice in glaciers flows in response to gravitational forces. Moreover, glaciers respond to changes in climate. Geologic data indicate that glaciers have, at different times in the past, covered more of Earth's surface than they do at present or were nearly absent. We are beginning to recognize that glacial ice itself holds important information on climate variability in the past. Glacial ice may provide humans with the keys to decipher the implications of changes in the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, changes in vegetation patterns on land, and changes in temperature and circulation patterns in the oceans. Glaciers are, then, a natural point of departure for one interested in understanding the climate system on earth and its history, and are significant to anyone who endeavors to analyze critically the prospects for human-induced climate change.
I intend to use glaciers as a window to understanding the earth’s climate. We will begin by examining the morphology, kinematics, and dynamics of glacier systems. We will then consider how glaciers sculpt the land surface and deposit rock debris. Next, we will analyze the patterns and distribution of glacial erosional and depositional features to determine the extent of glaciers at different times in the past. Then we will examine what factors led to alternating cold climates (Ice Ages) and warm climate (interglacial periods). We will end the semester by examining what studies of climate history suggest regarding the prospect for rapid climate change in the near future.
Grading: Your grade will be based upon brief essays written in-class at regular intervals throughout the semester, an in-class, fifty minute exam, and an exam given at the regularly scheduled 'final exam' time of Thursday, December 19 at 9:00 a.m.
I will also distribute an optional exercise concerning the field trip, and give you an opportunity to include that in calculating your grade.
Readings: Alley, Richard B. 2000. The two-mile time machine; Ice cores, abrupt climate change and our future. Princeton University Press (required).
I have also placed several journal articles on ERes, the electronic reserve system (also required).
I also post my lecture notes (i.e. PowerPoint presentations) and some other 'handouts' I have written on the Web.
Field Trip: I intend to run a half-day field trip to examine local glacial features on one afternoon in the second half of the semester. In all probability, I will run the same trip twice in one week, once on a Friday afternoon and again on a Saturday afternoon. I have entered a tentative date for the field trip on the schedule of topics below, but I will set the precise date of the trip depending on weather and other factors that I can assess as the scheduled date approaches.
Quantitative Proficiency: If you wish to earn a Quantitative Proficiency — Half certification for this course, you will need to complete 6 short problem sets. There is a separate syllabus for the QP portion of the course. Either a student assistant or I will be available in CARN 213 Thursday afternoons from 2:00-3:00 p.m. for those who want help in working through problem sets.
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Date |
Class Topic |
Assigned Reading |
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Sept 4 |
Introduction: Weather, climate & glaciers |
Alley, chapter 1 |
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Sept 6 |
Water & ice in glacial systems |
Lecture notes |
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Sept 9 |
Water & ice in glacial systems |
Lecture notes |
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Sept 11 |
Glacier ice & glacier systems |
Lecture notes |
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Sept 13 |
Morphology of glaciers, I |
Lecture notes |
|
Sept 16 |
Free day — Yom Kippur |
Lecture notes |
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Sept 18 |
Morphology of glaciers, II |
Self paced work using web materials |
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Sept 20 |
Morphology of glaciers, III |
Self paced work using web materials |
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Sept 23 |
Glacier dynamics I — ice deformation & glacier flow |
Lecture notes |
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Sept 25 |
Glacier dynamics II — mass balance |
Lecture notes |
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Sept 27 |
Mass balance II |
Lecture notes |
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Sept 30 |
Glacier erosion I — processes |
Lecture notes |
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Oct 2 |
Glacier erosion II - landforms |
Lecture notes |
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Oct 4 |
Glacier deposition — processes & landforms |
Lecture notes |
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Oct 7 |
Glacial meltwater |
Lecture notes |
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Oct 9 |
Field trip |
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Oct 11 |
Ancient glacial lakes & large floods |
Lecture notes |
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Oct 14 |
Methods for inferring glacier advances & retreats |
Lecture notes |
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Oct 16 |
FIRST EXAM - on lectures and reading through 10/11 |
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Oct 18 |
Isotopic method of inferring mass of glacial ice |
Alley, chapters 2 - 8'; lecture notes |
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* * * * * * * FALL BREAK * * * * * * * |
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Oct 28 |
Free day — I will be attending a conference |
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Oct 30 |
Pleistocene Ice Age history |
Alley, chapters 9 & 10 |
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Nov 1 |
Pleistocene Ice Age history |
Alley, chapters 11 & 12 |
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Nov 4 |
The global heat budget |
Alley, chapter 13 |
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Nov 6 |
Atmospheric circulation |
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Nov 8 |
Atmospheric circulation and prevailing weather patterns |
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Nov 11 |
Seasonal changes in weather |
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Nov 13 |
Factors that alter the global heat balance - solar irradiance, greenhouse gases and aerosols |
Haigh; IPCC SM; IPCC TS 21 -46 |
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Nov 15 |
Factors affecting the global heat budget- the carbon cycle |
Crowley & Berner; Lean & Rind; Ramanathan et al.; Broecker & Clark |
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Nov 18 |
High-frequency cycles of changing climate |
McElroy; Rial; Shackleton; Broecker & Hemming |
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Nov 20 |
Low frequency cycles of changing climate |
Fischer |
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Nov 22 |
Anthropogenic impact on the global heat budget
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Crowley; Hansen et al.; Levitus et al.; IPCC TS 46-55 |
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Nov 25 |
Anthropogenic impact on the global heat budget
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Houghton et al.; Stott et al.; IPCC TS 55-61 |
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Nov 27 |
Is the climate system stable or unstable |
Alley, chapters 14 - 18 |
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Nov 29 |
Free day — Thanksgiving |
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Dec 2 |
Predicting changes in global climate |
IPCC TS 62-79 |
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Dec 4 |
Assessing predictions of global climate change, I |
Gutzler; Kerr |
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Dec 6 |
Assessing predictions of global climate change, II |
Fung; Hartmann |
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Dec 9 |
Potential effects of global climate change |
Easterling et al. |
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Dec 11 |
Potential effects of global climate change |
Cowling |
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Dec 13 |
Where do we go from here? |
Chisholm et al.; Hoffert: Mintzer |
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Thursday, December 19, 9:00 a.m. - SECOND EXAM |
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Readings available through ERes or the Web
Adkins, J. 2001. Dating — Vive le différence. Science 294, 1844-1845.
Barnett, T. P., Pierce, D. W. & Schnur, R. 2001. Detection of anthropogenic climate change in the world's oceans. Science 292, 270- 273.
Bond, G., Kromer, B., Beer, J., Muscheler, R., Evans, M. N., Showers, W., Hoffman, S., Lotti-Bond, R., Hajdas, I., & Bonani, G. 2001. Persistent solar influence on North Atlantic climate during the Holocene. Science 294, 2130-2136.
Briffa, K. R. & Osborn, T. J. 2002. Blowing hot and cold. Science 295, 2227-2228.
Broecker, W. 1997. Will our ride into the greenhouse future be a smooth one? GSA Today 7/5, 1-6.
Broecker, W. & Clark, E. 2001. Glacial-to-Holocene redistribution of carbonate ion in the deep sea. Science 294, 2152-2155.
Broecker, W. & Hemming, S. 2001. Climate swings come into focus. Science 294, 2308-2309.
Chisholm, S., Falkowski, P. G., & Cullen, J. J. 2001. Dis-crediting ocean fertilization. Science 294, 309-310.
Cowling, S., A. 1999. Plants and Temperature - CO2 uncoupling. Science 285, 1500-1501.
Crowley, T. J. 2000. Causes of climate change over the past 1000 years. Science 289, 270-277.
Crowley, T. J. & Berner, R. A. 2001. CO2 and climate change. Science 292, 870-872.
Easterling, D. R., Meehl, G. A., Parmesan, C., Changnon, S. A., Karl, T. R., & Mearns, L. O. 2000. Climate extremes: Observations, modeling, and impacts. Science 289, 2068-2074.
Fischer, A. G. 1984. The Two Phanerozoic Supercycles. In: Catastrophes and Earth History - The New Uniformitarianism (edited by Berggren, W. A. & Van Couverling, J.E.). Princeton University Press, Princeton, 129-150.
Fung, I. 2000. Variable carbon sinks. Science 290, 1313.
Greene, K. 2002. Coastal cool-down. Science 295, 1823.
Gutzler, D. S. 2000. Evaluating global warming: A post-1990's perspective. GSA Today 10/10, 1-7.
Haigh, J. D. 2001. Climate variability and the influence of the sun. Science 294, 2109-2111.
Hansen, J., Ruedy, R., Sato, M. & Lo, K. 2002. Global warming continues. Science 295, 275.
Hartmann, D. L. 2002. Tropical surprises. Science 295, 811-812.
Hoffert, M. I. 1992. Climate sensitivity, climate feedbacks, and policy implications. In: Confronting climate change: Risks, implications, and responses (edited by Mintzer, I. M., Kleiner, A. & Leonard, A.). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 33-54.
Houghton, R. A., Hackler, J. L. & Lawrence, K. T. 1999. The U. S. carbon budget: Contributions from land-use change. Science 285, 574-578.
IPCC SPM — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Summary for Policy Makers - PDF available from 'http://www.ipcc.ch/' under Climate Change 2001 - The Scientific Basis
IPCC TS — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Technical Summary - PDF available from 'http://www.ipcc.ch/' under Climate Change 2001 - The Scientific Basis
Kerr, R. A. 2001. Rising temperature, rising uncertainty. Science 292, 192-194.
Lean, J. & Rind, D. 2001. Earth's response to a variable sun. Science 292, 234-236.
Levitus, S., Antonov, J. I., Wang, J., Delworth, T. L., Dixon, K. W., & Broccoli, A. J. 2001. Anthropogenic warming of Earth's climate system. Science 292, 267-270.
McElroy, M. B. 1992. Changes in climates of the past: Lessons for the future. In: Confronting climate change: Risks, implications, and responses (edited by Mintzer, I. M., Kleiner, A. & Leonard, A.). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 65-83.
Mintzer, I. M. 1992. Living in a warming world. In: Confronting climate change: Risks, implications, and responses (edited by Mintzer, I. M., Kleiner, A. & Leonard, A.). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1-14.
Ramanathan, V., Crutzen, P. J., Kiehl, J. T., & Rosenfeld, D. 2001. Aerosols, climate, and the hydrological cycle. Science 294, 2119-2124.
Rial, J. A. 1999. Pacemaking the Ice Ages by frequency modulation of Earth's orbital eccentricity. Science 285, 564-568.
Shackleton, N. J. 2000. The 100,000-year Ice-age cycle identified and found to lag temperature, carbon dioxide, and orbital eccentricity. Science 289, 1897-1902.
Stott, P. A., Tett, S. F. B., Jones, G. S., Allen, M. R., Mitchell, J. F. B., & Jenkins, G. J. 2000. External control of 20th century temperature change by natural and anthropogenic forcings. Science 290, 2133-2137.
General References
Barry, R. G. & Chorley, R. J. 1992. Atmosphere, weather, and climate, 6th Edition. Routledge.
Bradley, R. S. 1985. Quaternary Paleoclimatology: Methods of Paleoclimatic Reconstruction. Allen & Unwin.
Bryant, E. 1997. Climate Processes & Change. Cambridge University Press.
Chen, C.-T. A. & Drake, E. 1986. Carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere and oceans and possible effects on climate. Annual Reviews of Earth Planetary Science 14, 201-235.
Eichenlaub, V. 1979. Weather and Climate of the Great Lakes Region. University of Notre Dame Press.
Houghton, J. T., Jenkins, J. G., & Ephraums, J. J. (1990) Climate Change: The IPCC Scientific Assessment, Cambridge Press.
Houghton, J. T., Meira Filho, L.G. , Callander, B. A., Harris, N., Kattenberg, A., & Maskell, K. (1995) Climate Change: The Science of Climate Change, Cambridge Press.
Jager, J. & Ferguson, H, L. 1991. Climate Change: Science, Impacts, and Policy. Cambridge Press.
Lamb, H.H. 1977. Climate: Past, present, and future. Methuen, v. I & II.
Moore, P. D., Chaloner, B., & Scott, P. 1996. Global Environmental Change. Blackwell Science.
Open University Team. 1989. Ocean Circulation. Pergamon Press, Oxford.
Paterson, W. S. B. 1994. Physics of Glaciers, 3rd Edition. Pergamon Press.
Post, W.M., Peng, T.-H., Emanuel, W.R., King, A.W., Dale, V.H., & DeAngelis, D.L. 1990. The Global Carbon Cycle. American Scientist 78, 310-326.
Skinner, B.J. & Porter, S.C. 1987. Physical Geology. John Wiley & Sons, New York.