GEOL 4373 - Final Exam: Ice Ages (8.7

The _______ epoch, from 2.6 million to 10,000 years ago was marked by the periodic advance and retreat of continental ice sheets...Ice Ages

"Men are naturally irrational and lazy. Scientific thought is not natural to them, for it requires constant effort and inhibition." "Science is a joykiller"

3 Evidences for the Pleistocene Ice Ages

Prior to advent of the glacial theory, it was thought that objects such as erratic boulders and moraines were evidence for _______.

The geologists who attributed evidence to the Biblical Flood were known as ______.

He was a prominent Diluvalist, an Oxford professor, Fellow Royal Society, President of the Geological Society of London, believed in natural theology and Design, but did not believe in a young Earth.

Buckland discovered Pleistocene fossils in a cave near Kirkdale, England and interpreted them as ______, or remnants of life before the Flood.

The person who finally convinced the world of the existence of Ice Ages and the reality of the glacial theory was _______. He published "Etudes sur les glaciers" (Study on Glaciers).

"I am sorry that I cannot entirely adopt the new theory you advocate to explain transported blocks by moraines; for supposing it to be adequate to explain the phenomena of Switzerland, it would not apply to the granite blocks and transported gravel of England, which I can only explain by referring to currents of water"

After seeing the Scottish Highland geology with Agassiz, Buckland became "an ardent convert" to the ______ theory.

The _______ refers to the wobbling of the Earth as it rotates on its axis. It was discovered by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus.

____________ describes how much the Earth's orbit departs from a circle; it has a 100,000 year cycle.

Croll's theory was later refined by the the Serbian civil engineer and geophysicist _________.

The hypothesis that Ice Ages are caused by orbital variations is now known as the ______ Theory.

The 3 sources of orbital variation that causes changes in insolation (solar radiation).

In 1992, _______ and his colleagues from the US Geological Survey published a "Continuous 500,000-year climate record" obtained from Devil's Hole. "orbitally controlled variations in solar insolation were not a major factor in triggering deglaciations...these observations are inconsistent with the Milankovic hypothesis"

Cal physicist Richard Muller pointed out that the Earth's orbital ______ was highly correlated with climate. "We know of no model, linear or nonlinear, that can reconcile eccentricity with the observed narrow 100 kyr glacial cycle. This is a severe and possibly fatal problem for the conventional Milankovic mechanism of insolation..."

The cause of the Ice Ages remains "unknown", and the problem is that modest changes in orbital inclination have no measurable effect on _____.

The most important greenhouse gas is ____, and _____ is second

In the climate system, a _____ is a natural response that either amplifies or reduces a warming or cooling trend

Warm air holds more water vapor than cold air; water vapor is a greenhouse gas; water in the atmosphere acts as a _____ feedback for any warming trend.

Warm air holds more water vapor than cold air; air containing more water vapor is likely to have more clouds; clouds have a cooling effect, because they reflect sunlight back into space, acting as a ______ feedback for any warming trend.

CO2 concentration is controlled by ______, not the other way around

T/F: Temperature is controlled by CO2 content.

The reason that CO2 follows temperature is that _____ absorbs or releases CO2 as its temperature decreases or increases.

When the oceans _____, they release CO2 to the atmosphere.

When the oceans _____, they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.

T/F: Carbon dioxide is more soluble in cold water.

The atmosphere contains _____ tons of carbon, and the ocean has about _____ tons of carbon.

Ice Ages are driven by ____ feedbacks.

_____ cloud cover is positively correlated with the cosmic ray flux.

Besides carbon dioxide, what other factors can cause climate change?

When solar activity is ____, the Earth is shielded from cosmic rays by the Sun's magnetic field (warm)

When the Sun's magnetic field is ____, the cosmic ray flux increases (cold)

A large number of sunspots implies _____ conditions on Earth.

A ____ number of sunspots implies cool conditions.

The solar cycle is currently recovering from a ___ point. August of 2008 was the first month since the year 1913 that no sunspots were observed.