Exam 12: Climate Change

One of the major Ice Ages in Earth's history began in Early Carboniferous time (360 million years ago)and lasted for tens of millions of years until Late Permian time (260 million years ago).

Global cooling beginning in late Eocene time has led us into the current glacial interval.

The major factors in glacial periods lasting tens of millions of years appear to be ____________________.

Before life was present on Earth,the atmosphere was full of CO₂,and the average surface temperature of the Earth would have been about 550 ^$\circ$ F.

A typical La Nina winter brings cold air with high rainfall to the northwestern United States and western Canada,but causes warming and below average rainfall in most of North America.

One of the greatest weather disasters in U.S.history occurred during the ______,when several years of drought turned grain-growing areas in the center of the nation into the "Dust Bowl."

Because of its fluctuations in abundance,CO₂ is the most important of the greenhouse gases.

In the 1995 heat wave,most deaths in Chicago occurred to people living ______________.

Paleoclimatic analyses of the Earth's rocks tell of extreme variations and changes in world temperature and precipitation throughout geologic time.

During the 20^th century,the average global surface temperature rose ______.

Beginning from a temperature peak at 55.5 million years ago,the Earth began a long-term warming trend that has carried us into our current time between Ice Ages.

The climatic cooling of the last 55.5 million years has been caused by __________________.

The initial growth of northern continental glaciers that occurred between 3 million and 2.7 million years ago coincided with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama.

About 14,000 years ago,the Earth began to warm according to changes seen in annual ice layers in glaciers-the O¹⁸,CO₂,and methane content in ice ________.

The famous violins made by Antonio Stradavari in the late 1600s may owe their superior acoustical properties to the dense wood grown during a 70-year global __________________.

Not only do warm and cold intervals come and go,but they do not necessarily correlate with wet and dry periods,nor is there a distinct,geological-time pattern to the arrivals and departures of various climates.

The distribution of fossil organisms tells much about ancient climates,including the latitude at which a rock formed.

Episodes of climate change during the last 1000 years include all but which of the following?

Ice sheets in the northern hemisphere have a smaller effect on global climate change than Antarctic ice sheets because they expand and shrink in more dynamic fashion.

Over the last 7000 years there has been a ________________________.