ClimateCooling.pptVIP

Climate Cooling Proxy evidence indicates an erratic cooling Over both poles and mid latitudes Roughly equal cooling in first and second half of interval Tectonic Scale Cooling Mechanism? Lower volcanic CO2 emissions Increased weathering Increased ocean heat transport Tectonic changes Atlantic widened and Pacific narrowed India and Australia separated from Antarctica India and Australia moved to lower latitudes India collided with Eurasia Key oceanic gateways open and closed BLAG Hypothesis Depends of global spreading rates 55-15 mya general decrease in spreading Produce cooling 15 mya to today spreading increased Produce warming Consistent with record prior to 15 mya Inconsistent with record from 15 mya to present Cannot alone explain cooling Uplift Weathering Hypothesis To explain cooling, 3 criteria must be met High elevation terrain today must be unusually large High terrain must cause unusual amount of rock fragmentation Fragmentation and exposure must enhance chemical weathering Elevation on Earth Most high elevation caused by subduction of oceanic crust and volcanism Mountain ranges associates with subduction common throughout geologic time Deep-seated heating and volcanism East African plateau Mechanism of uplift not unique to last 55 my Existence of uplifted terrains like the Tibetan Plateau Not common through geologic time Conclude – amount of high elevation terrain is unusually large during last 55 my Physical Weathering High Does the amount of high elevation terrain result in unusual physical weathering? Most likely given 10 fold increase of sediment to the Indian Ocean Steep terrain along southern Himalayan margin Presence of powerful South Asian monsoon Chemical Weathering Global chemical weathering rates difficult to determine Dissolved ions in rivers clue Today concentration modified by human activity Difficult to distinguish ions from hydrolysis and dissolution Only hydrolysis important on long term Lots of rivers contribute ions to ocean Chemical w