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Frozen Earth: The Once and Future Story of Ice Ages

Page 29

by Doug Macdougall


  Climates of the Geological Past (Köppen and Wegener), 128

  cloudiness, in art, 225

  coal deposits, Carboniferous, 149–50

  cod, 223–24

  Columbia Plateau, 92, 101

  Columbia River basalts, 92–93

  Columbia River, 92–96, 99, 101, 106–7; gorge of, 91

  continental drift, 123, 144–46

  cores: of coral, 63, 164; of deep sea sediments, 54, 134–35, 138, 165, 167–71, 214; of lake sediments, 164; of trees, 164. See also ice cores

  cosmic rays, 220

  coulees, 93

  Croll, James, 48, 66–88, 67, 115, 120, 124–25, 128, 133–34, 137, 139, 165–66, 219, 228, 243; calculations of Earth’s orbit, 82–83, 83; caretaker at Anderson College, 72–73; Climate and Time in their Geological Relations, 74, 85; early life, 67–73; honors, 85; interest in the nature of heat, electricity and magnetism, 73; The Philosophy of Theism, 72; work on causes of ice ages, 74–77, 81–84

  Cuvier, Baron Georges, 28–30

  Darwin, Charles: and evidence for ice ages, 15–16; theory of evolution, 38, 42, 190, 192

  dating: of glacial deposits, 84, 86, 133, 144; of ice, 175, 179–81; of ocean sediments, 175; radioactive, 55; of volcanic ash, 191. See also Carbon-14, dating

  Desmarest, Nicolas, 22–23

  diamonds, 2

  drift, glacial, 46, 48–49, 52, 55, 141, 151; in India, 141

  dropstones, 59, 161

  Dryas, 198

  Durant, Will, 1

  Early Proterozoic Ice Age, 143, 160–61 eccentricity. See orbit, of Earth around sun

  Ediacarans, 210

  Edwards, Jonathan, 68

  El Niño events, 186, 218

  Eldredge, Niles, 192

  environmental determinism, 1

  equinox, 80; precession of, 78

  erosion: by glaciers, 13, 61, 127; by glacial floods, 105–6, 108 (see also Channeled Scablands)

  erratic boulders, 4–5, 32, 34, 37, 46–49, 47; of Columbia River gorge, 91, 93

  Études sur les glaciers (Agassiz). See Studies on Glaciers

  Eukaryotes, 209–10

  evolution, human, 187–91, 193–97, 199–206

  extinction, rate of, 209

  Fairbanks, Richard, 63

  fjords, 61

  Flint, Richard Foster, 102

  floods: biblical, 3, 19–20, 48; catastrophic glacial, 89–114; Lake Bonneville, 105–7; on Mars, 111–14; Siberian, 108

  fossil fuel, 240

  Freedom of Will (Edwards), 68

  French revolution, 223

  Geikie, Archibald, 74, 85

  genetic diversity, within species, 207–8

  Geological Society of London, 16–17

  Geological Society of Washington, D.C., 96

  geology: heroic period of, 16–17; and religion, 18–21

  Gilbert, G. K., 105–7

  glacial periods, 9, 82, 240; beginning of, 232; end of, 174; next, 233, 242–43

  glaciers: cores in, 12; definition, 10; flow of, 39, 49–51, 50, 146–47; layering in, 176; materials preserved in, 11–12; mountain, 2, 4, 10; in the tropics, 7, 142, 151–53, 155

  Glasgow, 72–73

  global warming, 155, 213, 233, 243

  Glomar Challenger, 170

  Gondwanaland, 145–50, 238

  Gould, Stephen Jay, 192

  gradualism, 94

  Grand Coulee, 98, 102, 105

  grasshopper, European populations of, 207–8

  grasslands, expansion of, 181, 194

  great apes, 188

  greenhouse effect, 157, 159, 238–40, 243

  greenhouse gases, 155, 161, 165, 174, 231, 233, 240. See also carbon dioxide; methane; water vapor

  Greenland ice sheet, 1–3, 16, 129, 149, 177, 230, 243

  Grissino-Mayer, Henri, 226–7

  Gulf Stream, 83, 109–10, 228–29

  Halifax (Canada), 41

  Hays, James, 138–39

  Himalayas, 238–40

  Hoffman, Paul, 154–55

  hominids, 188–91; fossil record of, 193, 196

  Homo erectus, 202–3, 206

  Homo rudolfensis, 201

  Homo sapiens, 190, 193, 199, 203–4, 206

  Hudson Bay, 109–10

  Hudson River, 62

  Humboldt, Alexander von, 29–31

  Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 122

  Hutton, James, 23

  ice age climate, 203; of Africa, 189, 194–95, 201; deduced from Vostok ice core, 181; and human civilization, 213–31; inferred from plankton, 168. See also climate; Pleistocene Ice Age

  ice age theory, debate over, 3–5, 15, 24, 35–37, 39, 45–46, 58, 84

  ice ages: ancient, 142–43; astronomical theory of, 69, 84, 87, 120, 131, 133, 233; causes of, 65–66, 232–3; current, 8, 141, 147; cycles of, 9, 46, 65–66, 84, 115–40, 163, 169–70, 233 (see also glacial periods; interglacial periods; Pleistocene Ice Age); definition of, 6, 9; Earth’s major, 143; role of feedback in, 129, 159. See also Archean Ice Age; Early Proterozoic Ice Age; Late Proterozoic Ice Age; Permo-Carboniferous Ice Age; Pleistocene Ice Age; Snowball Earth

  ice cores, 12, 175–86, 197–99, 233; Antarctic, 164, 177–83; bubbles in, 12 (see also air bubbles); dust in, 179–81, 199; Greenland, 164, 175, 177, 181, 199, 205, 215–16, 228–30; layers in, 12, 179, 181; from mountain glaciers, 164, 183–86; from Mt. Kilimanjaro, 185–86; in tropical glaciers, 184–86; volcanic ash in, 12, 178, 181. See also Vostok ice core

  ice field, definition, 10

  ice sheets, volume of continental, 174–75

  Iceman, the alpine, 11

  Imbrie, John, 138–39

  insolation, 75, 122, 126, 129, 139

  interglacial periods, 9, 54–55, 82, 242;

  current, 7–8, 212, 242; last, 240

  International Geophysical Year, 176

  JOIDES Resolution, 170

  Jura Mountains, 46, 48

  juvenilization, 196

  Kilimanjaro, Mount, glaciers on, 7–8, 183, 186

  Kirschvink, Joe, 153–55

  Köppen, Wladimir, 123–29; Climates of the Geological Past (with Wegener), 128

  Kullenberg, Börje, 168

  Kwaday Dan Sinchi (“Long Ago Man Found”), 11

  L’Anse aux Meadows (Newfoundland), 216

  lakes, glacial, 56

  land bridge, 64, 204

  landforms, glacial, 4, 22, 32–34, 39–40; drumlins, 53; eskers, 52; glacial polish, 56; grooves and scratches 13, 34, 42, 56–58, 141, 143, 148, 151, 161–63, 162; linear ridges, 14. See also drift, glacial; erratic boulders; moraines

  Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 77

  Late Paleozoic Ice Age. See Permo-Carboniferous Ice Age

  Late Proterozoic Ice Age, 150–60, 210; multiple episodes of, 158. See also Snowball Earth

  latitude, equivalent, 125, 126

  Libby, Willard, 132–33

  limestone, 155; and CO2, 237–38

  Lisbon earthquake, 47

  Little Ice Age, 38, 215–27, 230

  loess, 45, 60–61, 181; of the Channeled Scablands, 92–93, 95–97

  Long Ago Man Found, 11

  Lyell, Charles, 75

  Mackenzie River, 109

  magnetic field (Earth): nature of, 147–48; orientation preserved in rocks, 134–35, 148, 151–53, 161; reversals of, 134–35; reversal timescale, 138

  magnetic field (Sun), 220

  mammoths, 64; Siberian, 36–37

  maps, of glacial features, 46, 52, 84

  Mars Global Surveyor, 112

  Mars: chaotic terrain, 113–14; current conditions on, 111; evidence for catastrophic floods, 111–14; temperatures

  on, 123

  A Mathematical Theory of the Thermal Phenomena Produced by Solar Radiation (Milankovitch), 122

  Mayan civilization, 214

  Mayr, Ernst, 191–92

  Medieval Warm Period, 215–16, 219, 221, 223, 227

  methane: as a greenhouse gas, 159–60, 241–42, 233–34; hydrate, 24
1–42, 244

  Milankovitch, Milutin, 87–88, 131, 133, 139, 186, 195, 219; A Mathematical Theory of the Thermal Phenomena Produced by Solar Radiation, 122; Canon of Insolation and the Ice Age Problem, 130; doctoral thesis of, 117–18; education, 115–18; engineering work, 118; military service, 116–17; prisoner of war, 121–22; at University of Belgrade, 118–20

  Mississippi River, 109–10

  Missoula, glacial Lake, 99–105, 101

  monsoon, Indian, 239–40

  moraine, 33–34, 39, 49, 50, 52; lateral, 49, 50, 51; medial, 49–50, 50; soil development on, 51, 54; terminal, 2, 49, 51

  Mosley-Thompson, Ellen, 183

  Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 44

  Namibia, 154–55

  Neptunists, 23–24

  Neuberger, Hans, 225

  Neuchâtel, 26–27, 30–32, 34, 36, 39–41

  Niagara Falls, 87, 98

  Niagara River, 87

  North Atlantic Ocean, 219, 228–30

  North Atlantic Oscillation, 218–19, 230

  North Pole, 52, 78–80, 212

  O’Brien, Eileen, 202–3

  ocean circulation. See Gulf Stream; ocean currents

  ocean currents, 82–83, 109–10, 169, 218–19, 228. See also Gulf Stream

  Ocean Drilling Project, 107, 170–71

  ocean temperature, past, 171–72

  oceanography, 166–67

  Older Dryas, 198

  orbit, of Earth around sun, 75–80, 76, 139; eccentricity of, 76–81, 76, 83, 86, 120–21, 173, 175, 243

  Oxygen isotopes, 135–36; determining seawater temperature from, 135–36, 139, 172–73; in fossil shells, 135–38, 171–73; of seawater, 173

  oxygen, concentration in atmosphere, 154

  Paranthropus, 193

  Pardee, Joe, 99–100, 102

  Penck, Albrecht, 127–28, 132

  Penny Magazine, 69–70

  Penrose Medal, 105

  Permo-Carboniferous Ice Age, 144–50, 209, 236, 238

  Philosophical Magazine, 73, 81, 85

  Philosophy of Theism (Croll), 72

  photosynthesis, 155–57, 235–36, 240

  Pinatubo, Mt., 230

  piston corer, Kullenberg, 168–69

  plague, bubonic, 221–22

  plankton, 157, 166–68, 237; and water temperature, 168

  plate tectonics, 66, 146

  Pleistocene Ice Age, 9, 52, 142, 240–41, 244; beginning of, 188–89, 238; climate of, 187, 189; extent of glaciers during, 52–53, 147; and human evolution, 187–89, 193–206; multiple cycles of, 45–46, 53–55, 60, 63–64, 82, 141–42, 164, 178, 188, 194–95, 205, 207, 213, 233, 243 (see also glacial periods; interglacial periods). See also climate; ice age climate; ice ages

  polynya, 210

  Potholes waterfall, 91

  primates, 188

  Principles of Geology (Lyell), 75

  Proterozoic eon, 150

  proxy, 219–20; geochemical, 172–74, 181, 185, 215, 216, 220

  Puget Sound, 90

  punctuated equilibrium, 192–93

  Pyrenees, 208

  Quelccaya glacier, 184

  Raeburn, Sir Henry, 226

  raised beaches, 62

  rapid terminations (of glacial periods), 180, 182, 194

  rebound, of Earth’s crust, 62

  reflecting power, of snow and ice, 83, 129–30, 159, 244

  refugia, 210

  Révolutions de la mer (Adhémar), 77

  ripple marks, giant: near glacial Lake Missoula, 100, 102; in Channeled Scablands, 104–5

  rock flour, glacial, 56, 59

  rock magnetism. See magnetic field (Earth)

  Royal Society (London), 17, 166

  Sacred Theory of the Earth, The (Burnet), 20

  sand and gravel deposits, glacial, 55–56

  scablands, 89–92. See also Channeled Scablands

  Schimper, Karl, 4, 34

  science and religion, 17–21

  science, progress of, 5

  sea level: glacially lowered, 62–64; rising, 63–64, 165

  Sedgwick, Adam, 23

  Shackleton, Nick, 138–39

  The Skin of Our Teeth (Wilder), 187

  Snake River, 92, 95–96, 98–99, 106

  snow line, 129–30

  Snowball Earth, 150–60, 208–11, 241

  Snows of Kilimanjaro, The (Hemingway), 7

  solar activity, 219–21, 230

  solar cycle, 219

  solar energy, received on Earth. See insolation

  solar flares, 219

  solstice: summer, 78, 80; winter, 78, 80

  South Africa, evidence for glaciation of, 161–63

  South Pole, 146, 148, 150

  St. Lawrence River, 109–10

  Stanley, Steven, 190, 195–96, 206

  Stradivarius (violins) 226–27

  Studies on Glaciers (Agassiz), 34, 36, 39, 52

  Sumbawa, Island of, 231

  sunspots, 220

  superfloods. See floods, catastrophic glacial

  supergreenhouse, 157, 160, 210, 235

  superposition, principle of, 53

  Swedish Deep Sea Expedition, 168–69

  temperature, on Earth: changes in, 124; relationship to solar radiation, 121–22

  terrestrial imperative, the, 195–96, 206

  Thompson, Charles Wyville, 166

  Thompson, Lonnie, 183–86

  Tibetan Plateau, 238–39

  tillite, 141–43, 148, 153, 161–63

  tool making, human, 189–90, 196, 201, 204; See also Acheulean hand axe

  tsunami, 47

  turbidity currents, 107

  Two-Mile Time Machine, The (Alley), 175

  Tyndall, John, correspondence with James Croll, 74

  Urey, Harold, 135–36

  valley: U-shaped glacial, 61; hanging glacial, 61

  van Donk, J., 137–38

  varves, 58–59, 161

  vascular plants, 236

  Venetz, Ignatz, 32–35, 37

  Venus, 235, 237

  Vienna, 116–18

  Vikings, 216, 223

  volcanic ash, 193; hominid footprints in, 190–91

  volcanism, as source of CO2, 155–56, 236, 238

  Vostok ice core, 179–82, 180

  Vostok Station, Antarctica, 178

  Vostok, Lake, 178

  Wallula Gap, 101, 103

  Washington (state), 89–92, 103

  water vapor, as a greenhouse gas, 233–34

  waterfalls: extinct, in the Channeled Scablands, 96 (see also Grand Coulee); in Yosemite Valley, 61

  weather, 187, 212, 244

  weathering, chemical, 156, 158

  Wegener, Alfred, 123–24, 129; Climates of the Geological Past (with Köppen), 128; theory of continental drift, 144–46

  Werner, Abraham, 22–24

  Wilder, Thornton, 187

  Yakima River, 103

  Younger Dryas, 198–201, 200, 206, 215, 227, 229

  Zagreb, 116

  Text: 11/15 Granjon

  Display: Granjon

  Compositor: TechBooks

 

 

 


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