Glaciers as records of climate.ppt

Glaciers as records of climate Ice cores: Detailed records of temperature, precipitation, volcanic eruptions Go back hundred of thousands years Past climate reconstructions Instrumental records Global air temperature: limited records Proxy records of climate “proxy” = a measure of climate conditions of the past clues such as temperature, precipitation EX: ICE-CORES Global temperature- instrumental record Global temperature- reconstructed Methods of Dating Ice Cores Counting of Annual Layers Temperature Dependent Marker: ratio of 18O to 16O find number of years that the ice-core accumulated over Very time consuming; some errors Using volcanic eruptions as Markers Marker: volcanic ash and chemicals washed out of the atmosphere by precipitation use recorded volcanic eruptions to calibrate age of the ice-core must know date of the eruption How do we reconstruct past climate from ice cores? Oxygen Isotope analysis: Examining type of water isotopes contained in ice Gives clues about temperature at time of deposition Isotopes Defined Stable Isotopes Oxygen isotopes Three isotopes: 18O,17O and 16O Important isotopes: 18O and 16O Modern 18O/16O ratio: 1:500 Isotopic change Evaporation: lighter 16O evaporates more easily from a water body? resulting atmospheric H2O vapor is poorer in 18O than oceanic water Condensation: heavier 18O are precipitated faster than lighter 16O; So: coldest snow is lightest (less heavy 18O isotopes, more lighter 16O isotopes) Evaporative Fractionation 18O/16O ratio: “delta 18O” Stable isotope ratios are expressed as parts per thousand (per mil – ‰) relative to a standard Ratio expressed as deviation of 18O from the Standard Mean Ocean Water ratio (SMOW) Delta O18 and temperature Temperature affects 18O/16O ratio: colder temperatures ? more negative values for the delta 18O warmer temperatures ? delta 18O values that are less negative (closer to the standard ratio of ocean water) Delta 18O and temperature Seasonal vari