Rocks that can tell us something about the climate in which they formed are called “lithologic indicators of climate”. Some of the more common climate indicators are coals (green dots), which occur where it is wet enough for vast rainforests to grow; salt (yellow dots) which precipitates from seawater in hot and dry climates where the rate of evaporation is very high; and tillites (black dots) which are a special kind of conglomerate that’s deposited near melting glaciers. The other lithologic indicators of climate that appear in this animation are: bauxites (blue dots - hot & wet), desert soils (orange dots - dry), and warm temperate soils (light blue dots- warm & sometimes wet).
The idea is basically very simple. By plotting the geographic occurence of different lithologic indicators of climate, we can map out the extent of ancient climatic belts. We see a tropical wet belt near the Equator (green and blue dots), a desert belt (yellow and orange dots), a high latitude temperate wet belt (green and sometimes black dots), and a polar ice cap (black dots).
The Earth’s climate has shifted from “Ice House“ conditions - like today’s climate, to “Hot House“ conditions - like the time of the dinosaurs. When you see black dots that means there is ice at the pole(s) and the Earth is experiencing “Ice House“ conditions. When there are no black dots near the pole, the Earth is in a “Hot House“ climate.
My co-authors and I have published an Atlas of Phanerozoic Paleoclimate15 made up of 28 paleoclimatic reconstructions (Boucot et al., 2013). This is where the data for the animation comes from. Over 8000 lithologic indicators of climate are plotted on these maps. These maps record the on-the-ground, factual evidence that describes the state of the Earth’s climate during the past 540 million years. During that time there have been four hothouse and four icehouse worlds.
We are now living in an Ice House world. The big question is whether the current episode of global warming will melt the polar icecaps and pouch the Earth’s climate into a Hot House World.
Boucot, A.J., Chen Xu, and Scotese, C.R, 2013. Phanerozoic Paleoclimate: An Atlas of Lithologic Indicators of Climate, SEPM Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology, (Print-on-Demand Version), No. 11, 478 pp., ISBN 978-1-56576-289-3, October 2013, Society for Sedimentary Geology, Tulsa, OK.
1 view
255
74
4 months ago 00:49:59 1
🥕L’évolution du cIimat - Avec des paIéocIimatoIogues
8 months ago 00:10:36 1
Will 2024 be the Hottest Year Ever Recorded?
8 months ago 01:10:41 1
Global Warming: The Century We Saved Earth
11 months ago 00:01:31 1
Paleoclimate and Plate Motions
11 months ago 00:01:50 1
PaleoLakes&PaleoClimate by Scotese
11 months ago 00:52:48 1
Mysteries of the Last Ice Age - Full Documentary
11 months ago 00:15:47 1
Les mondes oubliés du GRAND NORD !
11 months ago 06:02:43 1
Chicxulub strikes back ! Mass extinction in real time
12 months ago 02:48:22 1
Manufacturing Consent in Times of Crisis - Dr. Richard Lindzen, Harvard/MIT Climate Scientist DS 183
12 months ago 01:06:28 1
Chicxulub Impact Event in real time
1 year ago 01:08:22 2
Hervé Reculeau. How Did Ancient Mesopotamians Deal with Climate Change
1 year ago 00:47:48 3
Florida’s Rarest Tree - Torreya taxifolia & Chigger Infestation
1 year ago 00:19:51 1
13,000 Years Ago: How Bad Was the Younger Dryas in the Fertile Crescent?
1 year ago 00:49:43 1
25. Ice and climate change
2 years ago 00:14:58 6
Three Sisters Garden Update
2 years ago 00:27:17 6
Палеонтология - наука о динозаврах? Нет!
2 years ago 00:35:42 7
Planting Primitive “Three Sisters Garden“ at the Hut (episode 43)