Module Identifier | GG21110 | ||||||||||||||
Module Title | READING THE ICE AGE RECORD | ||||||||||||||
Academic Year | 2004/2005 | ||||||||||||||
Co-ordinator | Dr Henry F Lamb | ||||||||||||||
Semester | Semester 1 | ||||||||||||||
Other staff | Dr Geoff Duller, Dr Sarah J Davies | ||||||||||||||
Course delivery | Lecture | 22 Hours 11 x 2 hour lectures | |||||||||||||
Seminars / Tutorials | |||||||||||||||
Assessment |
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Objectives
1. To provide students with a critical view of the methods used to obtain Quaternary palaeoenvironmental data.
2. To equip students to interpret a range of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental data.
3. To enable students to realise the importance of past records in relation to contemporary issues such as global warming.
4. To introduce students to current literature in the field of Quaternary research.
The chronological framework:
Terminology and timescales.
Palaeomagnetism. Potassium-argon dating.
Radiocarbon dating; calibrating the radiocarbon timescale.
Evidence from the oceans:
Oxygen isotopes, microfossil assemblages and terrigenous input
Quaternary sea-level records.
Evidence from the continents:
Lakes and lake sediments
Diatom records of surface water acidification.
Peat stratigraphy.
Ice core records of climatic change:
Stable isotopes; dissolved and particulate matter; gas bubble contents.
European and Chinese loess sequences.
Biological evidence:
Tree rings: dendroclimatology
Pollen analysis: principles, methods, and data presentation.
Interpreting past vegetation and climate from pollen data
This module is at CQFW Level 5