Module Identifier | EA30410 | ||
Module Title | VOLCANIC ACTIVITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE | ||
Academic Year | 2002/2003 | ||
Co-ordinator | Dr John P Grattan | ||
Semester | Semester 2 | ||
Course delivery | Lecture | 22 Hours 11 x 2 hours | |
Assessment | Semester Exam | 2 Hours Written examination. | 50% |
Semester Assessment | Course Work: Coursework to be submitted by the end of week 9. | 50% | |
Supplementary Assessment | Resit: Examinations will have the same format. Students who fail the continuous assessment component of the module will be set a recovery assessment which will take the form of an extended essay to be submitted to the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences General Office by the day of the resit examination. |
2. Core concepts: Students will develop a clear theoretical and philosophical framework, which will allow them to assess the degree of inter relationship between different environmental systems. Central to this will be an understanding of the sensitivity of environmental systems to external forcing mechanisms.
2. Tephra versus Sulphur. How do Volcanic eruptions generate climate change?
3. Circulation Response.
North Atlantic circulation. The El Ni'r. Monsoon disruption.
4. Ice Sheet and Glacier Response.
Do ice sheets respond to volcanic activity? What is the link between volcanic activity and the Pleistocene glacial advances?
5. Palaeoecological Data.
Does independent ecological data verify or contradict assumptions re volcanic eruptions and climate?
6. The Laki eruption of 1783.
Climate response.
7. The environmental impact of volcanic eruptions.
8. The Eruption Of Tambora And The Year Without A Summer.
9. The Distal Impact Of Volcanic Aerosols.
10. The Hekla eruptions. Direct impact on the British Isles?
11. The extinction of the Dinosaurs.
12. Mt. Pinatubo, impacts on climate and stratospheric ozone.
13. Sun and dust versus greenhouse gases.
14. Summary and roundup.