Climatology (Spring 2006)
Study Guide for Final
Examination
Class and Video Notes,
Chapters 13-16 in Ruddiman
Short
Essays (60 Points). I will choose
one of the topics from the list below and ask you to write on it. You
will NOT have the option to choose an essay topic, so you must be prepared to
write on all of them!
1. How do
glaciers contribute to their own survival during periods of orbital warming?
(Lecture notes and Chapters 13 and 14.)
2. Where is
the evidence for millennial oscillations? How is the evidence
analyzed? What does it show? Describe the three theories discussed in
class that might explain the occurrence of millennial oscillations. (Lecture notes
and Chapter 15.)
3. Compare
and contrast a historical change in climate to that of a millennial
oscillation. Where do scientists collect natural proxy data to reconstruct
historical climate change? How is the evidence analyzed?
What does it show? (Lecture notes and Chapter 16.)
4. Define
the theory of global warming. Discuss the “global warming” debate in the
context of the hockey stick controversy: How do proponents and skeptics differ
regarding the stick’s shaft and the blade?
(Lecture notes, Video [The Fallacy…], and you might wish to refer to
pages 419-421 in the textbook and for really interesting
but all too often misinformed writings, the Internet.)
Matching – Four groups with
5 matches in each group (i.e., 20 questions)
Multiple Choice
– about 10 questions
True-False – about 15
questions
Helpful terms to study:
Important
(5 or 6) scientists (who, what, when, where)
Islands (examples, where, relevance regarding
evidence, etc.)
Sintering
Tree
ring studies
Best data locations
Examples
Types
of cores
Glacial
two-step
Non-sea
salts
Younger
Dryas
Sediment
drift areas
GRIP
cores
Vostok
cores
Ice
core analysis
18O record (what it can show)
Testing
for dust
Milankotich cycles and ice cores
Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations
Heinrich
events
Region
wide oscillations (where, what evidence)
Worldwide
oscillations (where, what evidence)
Last
glacial maximum
Where
Where
Impacts
Insolation
levels
Ice
sheet slow response to insolation forcing
Climates
of ice sheets
Reasons
for lower CO2 levels during glacial maxima
Former
sea level determination (method)
O18 as
a signal of temperature
Ice
Sediments
Corals
Other
types of evidence in ice cores
Climatic
optimum (what, when, where)
Little
Ice Age (what, when, where)
Evidence
of ice rafting (what, where, when)
Ice
cores from mountain glaciers (where, when, what do they show)
Mountain
glaciers (evidence of global warming?)
Three
main types of historical scale evidence
On-going
sea level rise (causes, main cause)
Sunspot
theory
El
Niño
Volcanic
explosions and climate change
Pinatubo
Global
warming and hockey stick controversy
Climatic
variability
Skeptics
of global warming (arguments)