Rapid Climate Change Meets Standards
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Created by:
gretchenfeiss on April 26, 2010
Subjects:
Description:
vocabulary for second learning target in Global Climate Change Unit
Classes:
MAMS 8 North Science 2009-2010
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11 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 paleoclimate proxy | a piece of evidence that nature provides allowing scientists to reconstruct details of past climates, example: tree rings, lakebed sediments, ice cores |
| crossdating |  the process of overlapping climatic "fingerprints" in tree rings to reconstruct paleoclimates |
| seasonal growth patterns |  the amount of growth in trees, ice, and other paleoclimate proxies that allow us to determine ancient paleoclimates |
| ice core |  a tube of ice drilled out of a glacier, that preserves dust in seasonal growth bands, air pockets, and other evidence of paleoclimates |
| oxygen isotope ratio |  the amount of oxygen-18 in water molecules that records the temperature conditions at the time of snow deposition in an ice core |
| mass extinction event | a time in geologic history during which many species of organisms go extinct; usually evidenced by disappearance of fossils in the rock record |
| K/T Boundary | the boundary between Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks that records the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. High levels of iridium suggest that an asteroid caused rapid climate change, resulting in the mass extinction. |
| systems theory | the idea that systems are made up of parts whose fate depends on each other in complex (and often difficult to predict) ways |
| Milankovitch Cycle | the changes to the shape of Earth's orbit over a 100,000 year cycle, causing it to change from elliptical to circular |
| albedo | the reflection or absorption of solar radiation depending on the material on the surface of the earth |
| greenhouse effect | the insulation of the Earth's heat by greenhouse gasses (incl. CO2, methane) |
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