Earth's Climate through time

• Varagian Glaciation - (~635 –800 Ma) “Snow Ball Earth” continental glaciers at nearly equatorial latitudes
• Cenozoic Decline - (65 Ma to Present) Glaciation of Antarctica and Northern Hemisphere
• Drake passage - Formed by the separation of south America and Antarctica
• Label the following.

  A) Younger Dryas

  B) Holocene Maximum

  C) Little ice age

  D) Medieval Climatic Optimum

  
• Stegodonis - a primitive elephant that has its origins in the late Miocene of Asia. It is the ancestor of mammoths and modern elephants.
• Precession - is the ‘wobble’ of the Earth on its axis. Variation in precession changes the amount of energy received by the Sun.
• Every how many years does the Earth's eccentricity, obliquity, and precession change?

  100000, 41000, 23000
• What are the conditions for glacial period based on Milankovitch cycles?

  Low eccentricity

  Low tilt

  Large Sun-Earth distance in the summer
• What are the conditions for interglacial period based on Milankovitch cycles?

  High eccentricity

  High tilt

  Small Earth-sun distance in summer
• Among the ocean waters and land masses, which is more absorbent to solar energy?

  Ocean