Topic #2 The Earth's Changing Climate

At the top of your paper you will find two grades.
The first is the content grade (you could earn up to 8 pts)
The second grade is the writing quality grade (you could earn up to 7 pts)

Here are some of the details and kinds of information we looked for when determining the content grade
Changing climate (up to 1 pt)
glacial period ended about 18,000 years ago
glaciers now cover 10% of land surface (sea level could rise 65 m [213 ft] if this all melted)

Determine past climates (2 - 2.5 pts)
fossil pollen
ocean floor sediments
what organisms were around
oxygen isotope analysis of shells
ice cores
oxygen isotopes
chemical analyses
sulfuric acid means volcanic activity

Climate through the ages (2 pts)
it was 8 to 15o C warmer in the past, poles were ice free
Pleistocene epoch (Ice Age) that we're currently in started ~ 2 million YA
most recent glacial period ended 18,000 to 20,000 YA, this was followed by warming that
was interrupted ~12,700 YA by cooling (Younger Dryas)
Holocene maximum (climatic optimum) = warm period about 6000 YA

Most recent 1000 yrs (2 - 2.5 pts)
1000s-1300s (AD) Medieval climatic optimum = warm period
relatively warm over W. Europe
1400s - 1800s Little Ice Age = cold spell in Europe
1816 Year without a summer (volcanic eruption)

1900-1945 +0.5o C of warming
1945-1970 slight cooling
1970-present warming

Thermohaline (conveyor belt) circulation (0.5 - 1 pt)
transports heat and moisture to the N. Atlantic
strong current = warm in N and W Europe
weak current = much colder
influx of fresh water (from melting ice caps and glaciers) could weaken or shut down the current

Writing grades were awarded as follows:
Excellent (7 pts)
Free of grammatical and spelling errors, clear understanding and presentation of the material, material presented in an original and interesting way

Average (6 pts)
An occasional spelling or grammar error, organization and explanations not much different from what is found in the textbook (this makes it hard sometimes to judge how well you understood the material)

Below average (5 pts)
Quite a few spelling errors, some confusion or awkward sentence constructions, incomplete or inaccurate explanations of some of the material or superficial coverage of the material, the majority of the report is understandable.

Poor (4 pts)
Report is becoming hard to understand.