EAES 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Mauna Loa Observatory, Core Data, Oxygen-18
15 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Historical climate change and evidence of climate change. What significance does the original keeling curve published in 1960 have for climate science: it introduced the idea that co2 concentrations fluctuate seasonally. Now that 50 years of data have been collected, what does the modern keeling curve show: it shows that global co2 concentrations are rising. How has the temperature changed in green bay: periods of increases and decreases. Need to distinguish change from variability: depends on time scale used, trend may be part of a longer cycle, climate variability indicated by cycles, climate change indicated by trends or jumps. Using chemistry: isotope chemistry can help , date the age of rocks, date the age of biological materials [pollen, woof, trace climate events. Stable isotopes: all atoms of a given element have the same # of protons but variations in # of neutrons will determine if the isotope is stable or unstable (radioactive)
