Page 75 - The World About Us

Weather balloon
1.1.1
1.1.1
2.2.3
2.3.1

Global temperature data Recently collected data can then be cross-referenced to
ice core samples for the same year. This improves our
In recent decades the amount of weather data collected understanding of the ice found in the layers created prior to
from around the world has increased drama cally. Data the development of modern technology.
from countries such as the UK and USA is incredibly detailed.
Developing countries may not have such an extensive Ocean floor sediments
network of weather sta ons as the UK, but the data collected
is improving every year. Powerful computers collect and Scien sts also require a reliable method of interpre ng
collate all the data from ground sta ons and combine it with clima c condi ons from periods older than the age of ice. A
valuable source of climate data is deep ocean sediments. On
data from satellites, weather balloons and oceanic weather
the sea bed of the oceans, sediments build up over me into
buoys. This data helps create detailed maps of global
weather and climate. layers. These sediments are made up of the remains of
Fig.205 Collec ng data with weather balloons, Hawaii. surface dwelling plankton and other creatures which have
sunk to the seabed when they died.

Chemical analysis of these sediments, such as looking at
the carbon and oxygen locked up as carbonates in skeletal
and shell material, can be used to suggest the clima c
condi ons prevalent when the plankton was alive.
Fig.206 Ocean sediments contain climate data.

Have we entered the
1. What is an eon? (1)
2. Which eon are we currently living in? (1) Anthropocene epoch?
3. “Mass ex nc ons are a common feature of the
Phanerozoic.” Discuss this statement. (6) In August 2016 a group of scien sts recommended that
4. What is meant by the term 'Cambrian explosion'? (2) the world recognise that we are now in a new geological
epoch, to be known as the Anthropocene. They dated this
5. When did oxygen first appear in the Earth’s
new epoch to have started on July 16th 1945 (seconds
atmosphere, and why? (3)
before the first ever nuclear bomb test).
6. How old is the human species, Homo sapiens? (1)
They argued that a new dis nct epoch has begun as the
7. Contrast 'glacial' and 'interglacial' during the result of the impact of human-induced climate change on
Quaternary. (3) the geological and biological systems of the planet.
8. What is meant by the Medieval Warm Period? (2) At the me of wri ng, the Interna onal Union of

9. What, and when, was the Li le Ice Age? (3) Geological Sciences had yet to make a formal decision on
whether we are now living in the Anthropocene and, if so,
10. Describe the various methods of measuring past when this new epoch actually started.
changes in global temperatures. (4)
Others are already convinced, ci ng as evidence the
11. Why might ice cores samples be more accurate than very high rate of ex nc on for species (between 1,000 and
cave pain ngs at showing past climate change? (4) 10,000 mes the natural rate) taking place before our eyes.

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The climate has changed from the start of the Quaternary period.