Climate Change Over Time
- Geological time is measured in aeons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages
- We are now in the Quaternary period, which is divided into 2 epoch
- Pleistocene epoch which began 2.6 million BP (before the present)
- Holocene epoch, beginning at the end of the last ice age some 11,700 years BP
- Earth's climate has always swung between icehouse and greenhouse conditions, due to various reasons and over different lengths of time
- During the Pleistocene epoch, there were 17 periods of glaciation (ice ages) and 17 interglacial (warming) periods
- Glacial periods saw glacial advance/expansion and sea levels dropped
- Interglacial saw glacial retreat/contraction and sea level rise
- Each cycle of warm-cold lasts about 100,000 years
Mean Antarctic temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentration over the past 200,000 years
- 21,000 years ago, 32% of the Earth's surface was covered in ice
- Currently, the Earth is in an interglacial period with glaciers retreating,
Exam Tip
Remember that climate refers to a 30 year period of time, where temperature and precipitation has remained fairly constant over that period. Weather is the day-to-day conditions, which is dynamic.
Weather is what you get and climate is what you expect.
You expect to need an umbrella in the UK; but not in the Mediterranean.