The
field of paleoclimatology relies on physical, chemical, and biological
proxies of past climate changes that have been preserved in natural
archives such as glacial ice, tree rings, sediments, corals, and
speleothems.
Paleoclimate archives obtained through field investigations, ocean
sediment coring expeditions, ice sheet coring programs, and other
projects allow scientists to reconstruct climate change over much of
earth's history.
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When
combined with computer model simulations, paleoclimatic reconstructions
are used to test hypotheses about the causes of climatic change, such
as greenhouse gases, solar variability, earth's orbital variations, and
hydrological, oceanic, and tectonic processes.
This book is a comprehensive, state-of-the art synthesis of
paleoclimate research covering all geological timescales, emphasizing
topics that shed light on modern trends in the earth's climate. |
Thomas
M. Cronin discusses recent discoveries about past periods of global
warmth, changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, abrupt
climate and sea-level change, natural temperature variability, and
other topics directly relevant to controversies over the causes and
impacts of climate change.
This text is geared toward advanced undergraduate and graduate students
and researchers in geology, geography, biology, glaciology,
oceanography, atmospheric sciences, and climate modeling, fields that
contribute to paleoclimatology. This volume can also serve as a
reference for those requiring a general background on natural climate
variability.
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Paleoclimates
Understanding Climate Change Past and Present
by Thomas M . Cronin
Columbia University Press, 2009
Order
a copy
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