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Students will read about the details of Earth's past climate over specific time periods and write up their findings in a paper. Individual papers should be at least 1000 words in length (equivalent to 4 double spaced typewritten pages). Students taking ATMS 211 as a writing course will be required to submit a 10-page (2500 word) paper which they will have the opportunity to edit in response to suggestions from the instructor. For more info on the "W" requirement, click here .
Individual
Papers
Each student will choose
a topic by the end of October. A preliminary project title with a
one paragraph summary and a list of at least three references (books, articles
in journals, web links), is due from each student on October 26.
Students can work together on these projects, but each student must turn
in an independently written paper. For example, 3 students can decide
to look at the Past 100 million years, one focusing on the recent stages
of continental drift, the other on K-T mass extinction, and the last one
on the cooling of the Earth over that time period. If you do decide
to work in groups, let me know.
The final paper will be due
on November 9. It should be at least 1000 words in length
(2500 words if you wish to take the class as "W" class). The paper
should include a title, an introduction, a discussion of the subject matter,
and a conclusion. In your discussion, keep in mind that you should
try and address three issues: a description of what we know about climate
for the time period you chose, how do we know it, and what are the potential
causes for the state of climate at that time. Also, as you search
for references, you might find different interpretations of the observations
and different theories about past climates. You can highlight these
differences as well.
Supplementary tables or figures
are encouraged and datasets, references (including web references), and
other sources of information used in the paper should be listed in sufficient
detail at the end so that an interested reader will know how to locate
them. It should be clear from reading the paper what piece of information
came from what source.
Topics
The table below includes
is a list of topics you can choose from. If you wish to choose a
topic not directly listed below, please let me know ahead of time.
You can also choose to focus on one of the topics below, but for specific
regions (for example: ice ages in the Pacific Northwest). Please
do not discuss topics linked to global warming and future climate change
(we will have plenty of time to do so during the last couple of weeks of
class): the topic of the paper should strictly focus on past climate
changes.
| Overview of history of Earth: | |
| Asteroid and meteor bombardment | |
| Evolution of atmosphere and life | |
| Continental drift | |
| Is the Earth unique (or nearly unique) as a habitable planet? | |
| Past 100 million years: | |
| Recent stages of continental drift | |
| K-T mass extinction | |
| Cooling of earth | |
| Formation of Himalayas and their influence on climate | |
| Past million years: | |
| Alternating glacial and interglacial epochs of the Quaternary period | |
| Extent of continental ice sheets, impact on sea-level | |
| Temperature and rainfall in ice free parts of the Earth | |
| Carbon dioxide, dust, sulfate aerosols | |
| Effects of climate on land forms | |
| Past 20,000 years: | |
| Emergence from the most recent ice sheets | |
| Withdrawal of the ice sheets | |
| Effects on land forms | |
| The Younger Dryas Period | |
| Past 2,000 years: | |
| Climate of the Roman period | |
| Climate of the 'Dark Ages' | |
| the Medieval Warm Period | |
| the 'Little Ice Age' | |
| the 'Dust Bowl' | |
| Evidence of past climates and conditions on Earth: | |
| Geological formations | |
| sediments | |
| fossils | |
| tree rings | |
| varves | |
| pollens | |
| corals | |
| ice cores | |
| historical written records | |
| Impact of climate on human history: | |
| African climate and human evolution | |
| Climate change and the collapse of past civilizations | |
| also see topics under "Past 2,000 years" listed above | |
The paper will count for 25% of your total class grade.
Getting
Started
Your textbook has a lot of
relevant information scattered throughout the various chapters, especially
Chapter 8, Chapter 11 and Chapter 12. You can also refer to the links
below, and do your own searches in the literature or on the web.
Links
Review
article by Thomas Crowley in "Consequences, the nature and implications
of environmental change" (http://www.gcrio.org/CONSEQUENCES/winter96/geoclimate.html)
Another starting point: NOAA paleoclimatology program (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/)
Ice age climate reconstructions (http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc.html)
Reference list for ice age climate (http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/refs.html)
African Climate and Human Evolution (http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~peter/Resources/Climate_evol.html)
Cultural responses to climate change during the late Holocene (http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~peter/Resources/CultureClimate.html)
Books
available in the libraries on campus (check availability in
UW
libraries catalog)
Global Climates Since
the Last Glacial Maximum. Editors: Wright H.E. Jr., Kutzbach J.E.,
Webb T. III, Ruddiman W.F., Street-Perrott F.A. & Bartlein P.J. University
of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1993.
The World at 18,000 BP. Edited by Soffer O. & Gamble G. Unwin Hyman, London, 1990.
Palaeoclimatology. Crowley T.J. & North G.R. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991.
The Last great ice sheets. Edited by George H. Denton & Terence J. Hughes. Wiley, New York, 1981.
From Eros to Gaia. Freeman Dyson. Pantheon Books, New York, 1992. (Chap 12)
Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery. J. Imbrie and K.O. Imbrie. Harvard University Press, 1986.
Floods, famines, and emperors : el Niño and the fate of civilizations. Brian Fagan. Basic Books, New York, 1999.
The Little Ice Age : How climate made history 1300-1850. Brian Fagan. Basic Books, New York, 2000.
Articles
in journals:
Kasting, J.F., O.B. Toon,
and J.B. Pollack, 1988: "How Climate Evolved on the Terrestrial Planets."
Scientific American, p. 90-97.
W.S. Broecker and G.H. Denton, "What Drives Glacial Cycles?" Scientific American, January 1990.
W.S. Broecker, "The Ocean". Scientific American, September 1983.
W.S. Broecker,"The Great Ocean Conveyor". Oceanography, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1991.
Last
Updated:
10/15/2001