Unit information: Extreme Climates of the past in 2018/19

Unit name	Extreme Climates of the past
Unit code	GEOG30017
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Rachel Flecker
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	There are no pre-requisites but students will be offered an optional revision practical to ensure that their Excel skills are appropriate for the practical tasks.
Co-requisites	Available to year-three Geography and year- four Geography with Study Aboard/Continental Europe students only.
School/department	School of Geographical Sciences
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Description including Unit Aims

The unit will comprise up to ~12 lectures, six computer-based practicals and ~3 2-hour seminars. The coursework component will provide 40% of the unit’s assessment, while the remainder will come from a two-hour unseen paper comprising two essay answers each worth 30%.

In order to assess the anthropogenic impact on climate, it is first necessary to understand natural climate variability. In this unit we consider the available data on the Earth’s climate over geological time focusing particularly on extreme warm and cold episodes in Earth history.

The unit is offered without prerequisite.

Aims:

• To develop student understanding of natural climate variability over geological time;
• To teach through practicals the process by which climate proxies are used to reconstruct past climate and give insight into the uncertainty that this entails;
• To expose students to the pros and cons of climate model-data comparison and its implications for future climate predictions

Element 1 : Extreme warm climates of the past

This element of the unit will ask students to consider why investigating past climate is important. Its lectures and practicals will also provide an introduction to how climate proxies are used to reconstruct past climate. The course ends by considering the evidence for warm climates in the past and questions how well we can model them.

1. Why study past climates
2. Climate proxies - the theory (practical)
3. Climate proxies - the practice (practical)
4. Eocene case study (practical)
5. Miocene case study

Element 2: Ice at both poles

The main focus of this element is how the Earth System behaved during the Quaternary when there extensive ice sheets developed in both hemispheres. The lectures and practicals introduce students to a variety of climate proxy archives that are used to test climate models and constrain climate forcings.

1. Stable isotopes and time series analysis (practical)
2. Ice cores and climate forcing (practical)
3. Ice cores and past temperatures
4. Synchronising climate records and abrupt climate change
5. The bi-polar sea-saw (practical)

Model-data comparison of the big melt

Intended Learning Outcomes

Teaching Information

Lectures, seminars & practical sessions

Assessment Information

• Final 2-hour Exam 60% [ILOs 1-3]
• Project Report 40% (3 sides of A4) [ILOs 1-3]

Reading and References

Essential Reading

1. Stocker, et al. (eds.) (2013) Climate Change 2013: The Scientific Basis Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Cambridge University Press, UK. Also available at http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1

2. Souch C (2003) Getting information about the Past: palaeo and historical data sources. Clifford, N.J. and Valentine, G. (eds), Key Methods in Geography. Sage 195-208

Further reading is provided at the end of each lecture