Coastal Hazards

Anatomy of a continental margin: Continental Shelf

Where the coast “begins”

• Extends from shoreline to water depths of 100-300 meters

• Can be exposed as land during glacial periods

• Gentle slopes

• Extends from water depths of 4000+ meters (ocean floor) up to continental shelf

• Submarine canyons, carved from turbidity currents

• Steep slopes

Deep Ocean Basin

Most of the ocean floor

•Average depth = 4 km (2.5 miles)

•Abyssal plains are broad and flat

•Deep-ocean trenches

•Mariana Trench: nearly 11 km (almost 7 mi) deep

Passive Coasts: Not Near a Plate Boundary

Sediment-rich: an area of deposition

•Wide continental shelves

•Depositional features

• Sandy beaches: shoreline accumulation of sand

• Barrier islands

• Sand bars

• Spit: beach extended from mainland across bay due to longshore drift
 Active Coasts: Near a Plate Boundary

Change in position of coast from uplift, down-dropping, or transform boundary exposes new

coast

•Sediment-poor: an area of erosion

•Erosional features

• Sea cliffs

• Rocky shorelines

Coastal Hazards 2: Sea level

Estuary: semi-enclosed coastal body of water

• Where rivers outlet meets the ocean tides

• free connection with ocean

• Less saline than oceans; more saline than freshwater

• Biologically diverse

Delaware Bay is a drowned river valley

When global sea level was lower (ice ages), large areas of the bay were land surfaces

• The ancestral Delaware River flowed across the upland in paleo-channels

• As glaciers melted and sea level rose, ocean water filled the bay

Sea Level is always Changing

Relative sea level

• Local sea level

• Position of the water sea at the shore

• Controlled by tides and waves

Relative Sea level: Waves vs. tides

Waves: short relative period (seconds) caused by wind

•Tides: Longer relative period (12 hours – high tide, low tide)

•Tidal extremes caused by gravitational pull of the sun and moon

Spring tides – occur about twice a month

Occur when the Moon’s gravitational attraction aligns with Sun’s gravitational attraction

àgreater variation in tidal levels

Relative sea level from waves:waves transfer wind energy to water

• Friction of offshore wind blowing across the water’s surface

• Pushes along the face of water, picks it up

• Low-energy wind (low speed, low duration) àripples

• High-energy wind (high speed, high duration) àwaves

• The uneven surface of a wave enhanced wind's grip

• Vertical surface gives wind something to blow against -> even more water displaced

3 factors determine wave size

1) Wind speed: higher wind speed àgreater wave height

• Think choppy waves in a storm, vs calm seas

• Storms with very strong winds can make enormous waves

2) Wind duration

• the longer the wind blows...

• Builds larger wave surface areas to blow against!

• Builds more waves

3. Fetch: the distance wind blows over water surface

• Greater fetch -> greater Wavelength, wave period, wave height

 As a wave approaches the beach…

• Friction/drag causes circular motion to change to elliptical motion

•Wave velocity decreases

•Wavelength shortens (decreases)

•BUT volume of water carried is the same -> wave height increases

Waves break when height becomes unstable

•Breaking waves

- Plunging breakers

• Waves that gain (and lose) height quickly

• Typical on steep beaches

• More erosive

- spilling breakers

• Waves that spill gently

• Typical on wide, flat beaches

• More likely to deposit sand

Waves rarely move in a straight line

Where water depth varies along coastline, waves curve as they approach

Shallower areas -> greater drag -> move relatively slower

Deeper areas -> less drag -> move relatively faster

Waves approach from the open ocean

• Wave front: approaching set of waves

• Wave normal: wave vector; travels perpendicularly to the wave front

Wave refraction
•Energy converges on areas where objects get in the way of the wave front

• Waves feel bottom and slow down at a rapid rate

• headlands/Wave refraction = more erosion by waves

Convergence = additive

Both wave height and energy increase

•Energy diverges from deeper areas or areas where shore shallows gently

• Waves feel bottom at a gradual pace

• embayments = less erosion by wave deposition

Wave refraction

Divergence = subtractive

Both wave height and energy decrease

Sea Level is always Changing

Eustatic sea level

• Distance from the center of Earth to the ocean surface

• Determined by the overall volume of water in the ocean and the shape of the basins

Eustatic Sea Level (Global Sea Level)

Average height of water in the world’s oceans is rising, on average over the modern era

Eustatic sea level change is driven by climate change

1) Thermosteric volume of oceans

•Temperature increases cause volume of water to EXPAND

•Temperature decreases cause volume of water to contract (to a point)

2) Changes in temperature cause ice on land to melt or snowfall to increase

Eustatic sea level decrease can be caused by...

Ice ages

Extremely strong storm seasons

•El Nino/La Nina

•Busy hurricane season

Changing the ocean basin shape over long periods of time

Eustatic sea level rise is caused by tectonic processesChanging the ocean basin shape over long

periods of time

Takeaways: Coastal Hazards 1&2

•Storm surge is the most significant hazard associated with coasts.

•The impact of storm surge on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts is due in part to these being passive

rather than tectonically active coastlines.

•Short term fluctuations in sea level (relative sea level) are caused by storms, tides, and waves.

•Eustatic sea level is controlled by longer term trends in climate driven by plate tectonics. Sea

level is lower during colder periods because more water exists as ice on land. The distribution of

continents also influences the shape of the ocean’s basins, the rate of spreading at mid-ocean

ridges also influences the density (and thickness) of the oceanic crust).

Coastal Hazards 3 Longshore current

•Wave normals rarely approach the shore head-on. The approach angle is usually oblique.

•As wave breaks, sand is carried up...

•...gravity rolls it back down

- Current: moving, directional force (wind or water)

- Drift: sediment moved by current

- Beach drift: as wave breaks, sand is carried up...gravity rolls it back down
 - Longshore drift: cumulative effect of beach drift

In a depositional environment, beaches can elongate over a bay to become a spit

•Longshore bars, with enough deposition over time, become barrier islands

Where the work of longshore drift occurs: Zone of littoral transport

- Littoral zone: The swash zone (shallow, where sand washes in and out) + the surf zone

(deeper area nearshore through breaker zone)

- Erosive power of wave action shapes beaches, cliffs, dunes

Onshore

- Berm: flattish sandy area (“the beach”), formed by deposition

- Beach face: steepish drop-off carved out by swash zone

The whole picture: Sediment Budget (littoral cell)

•Visualize erosion and deposition

•Input (+)

•Output (-)

•Storage: sandy beach!

•Beach grows when input + > output -

•Beach erodes when input + < output -

SI = Longshore drift(+)

•+: input

•adds sediment to beach

•Sediment has been removed from somewhere updrift

•Governed by wind and wave intensity

Scf = Sea Cliff erosion (+)

•+: input

•sediment added to beach from erosion of seacliff and lakeshore bluffs on land, washed to shore

•Sea cliffs chomped away by:

•Wave action, Running water, Landslides

•Sediment carried by prevailing currents

Sr= Deposition from inland river (+)

•+: input

•Carries sediment eroded from continent

Erosion (-)

•-: Sediment removal from beach itself

•Transported by longshore drift

•Littoral transport moves it on down the shore to another beach cell

Scy= Submarine Canyon (-)

•-: output, sediment removed from beach cell

•Carried away by:

•Waves, Wind

•Gravity: submarine canyon at lower elevation

Sediment budget creates a Littoral Cell

•Total sum of inputs and outputs within a given region

= Sl + Scf + Sr- Erosion – Scy

•Dynamic equilibrium

Coastal Hazards 4: Mitigation Strategies

Nearshore environments will ALWAYS be in dynamic equilibrium

•Erosion + Deposition

•Continuous, often predictable (unlike other natural hazards)

•LOT$$$ of money spent for temporary solutions

•Becoming a serious worldwide problem

•Sea-level rise

•Extensive development in coastal zones

Coastal erosion Case Study: Ocean City, MD

•Barrier islands

•Fenwick Island

•Contains Fenwick Island DE, S Bethany DE, and...Ocean City, MD

•Highly developed

•MD’s only coastal resort

•Over 8 million visitors annually!

•Assateague Island

•Less developed

Net effect of longshore drift over time...

•Net direction of transport is southwest

•from Delaware (NE) àVirginia (SW)

•Barrier islands are slowly transgressing, “moving” west (or disappearing entirely)

•Transgression: moving landward

•When sea level is rising faster than sediment supply

•Regression: moving seaward

•When sediment supply is greater/faster than sea level rise

 Urban development impacts sand cycling

•Ocean City permits building up to and beyond dunes

•BUT dunes are an important seasonal sand reservoir.

Coastal erosion: Mitigation strategies

•Why do: Beach is priceless(?) commodity

•Economic value

•Tourism

•Property

•Cultural value

•What do: Best strategy to mitigate coastal erosion:engineering structures to disturb littoral

transport

•Continued monitoring and maintenance is required

Protective hard structures: Jetties

•A pair of parallel structures

•Reroutes deposition to protect mouth of channel open

•Breaks up longshore current

•Interferes with longshore drift

•Increases deposition updrift

•Increases erosion downdrift

Jetty example: Indian River Inlet, Delaware, built in 1938

•Marinas must be sited in a protected bay -- Jetties ensure permanent opening

•US Army Corps of Engineers dredged from 1937 on to maintain access to a constantly moving

channel mouth
 Ocean City Jetty...inspired by hurricane

•Aug 24, 1933

•Hurricane severed Fenwick Island from Assateague Island

•Provided cleaning service for bay

•created marinas for recreational fishing

•“White Marlin Capital of the World”

Protective hard structure: Groin (or groyne)

•Built at right angles to the shore

•Spaced 50-100 m apart

•Slows down longshore current

•slower -> lower energy

•Deposition Drift

•Erosion downdrift

Protective hard structures: Breakwaters

ATTACHED BREAKWATER

•Linear; made of riprap or concrete

•Connected to shore

•Provides a protected mooring for vessels

•Longshore drift deposits on the updrift side; erodes on the downdrift side

Attached breakwater: Hilo, Hawaii

•Built on top of a submerged reef between 1908 and 1929

•Protection against winter storms (and also tsunamis)

Protective hard structures: Breakwaters

DETACHED BREAKWATER

•Linear; made of riprap or concrete

•Constructed parallel (unconnected) to shore

•Minimizes wave impact on shore

•Longshore drift deposits between the breakwater and the shore; erodes beach downdrift of shore

Protective hard structures: Seawall

•Traditional “hard” defense

•provide a physical barrier to protect valuable terrain

•Focuses energy to shore àpromotes erosion

•Old school: vertical stone

•easily damaged, can be undermined

•New school: sloped with a curved top

•breaks up wave energy

•top forces water backward

•Expensive ($10,000+ per meter)

•Limited lifetime: 20-30 years

Best protection: the beach itself

•Natural defense against erosion

•Wide beach, dune fields, beach grass absorb energy from storms and storm surges

•Withoutthe natural beach, waves encroach further inland

•Offshore sediment is important, too

•Remember littoral cell

•Seasonal reservoirs include those that we cannot see!

•Winter: stores offshore

•Summer: stores onshore

“Soft” protection: Beach nourishment

•Used where Erosion (-) of beach material is greater than Supply (+)

•Just add sand!

•Beach materials brought:

•from inland via truck

•from offshore via dredgers

Beach nourishment in Ocean City, MD

•Phase 1 (1988): 1.7 million m3 sand dredged and pumped over 5-month period

•Sand taken from offshore shoals

•Similar qualities to existing beach sand

•Phase 2 (1990): 13.8 km hurricane protection dune

•constructed with 2.7 million m3 sand

•designed based on projections for a 100-year storm

•Phase 3 (ongoing): maintenance

•Since 1994, over 8 million m3 offshore sand emplaced

•Additional 9.2 million m3 estimated over the next 46 years

•BUT increasing number of severe storms may require more replenishment

Dune Management

- Strengthening: active capture of blown and washed sand

•Planting beach grass and sea oats, Palm trees, Sea fences

- Monitoring: Determine which areas are eroding or accumulating

 Climate change

Climate is determined by the radiative balance

Radiative balance = Solar energy absorbed – Energy lost to surroundings (space)

Solar Radiation is not Evenly Distributed

High (polar) latitudes receive less solar radiation.

Earth’s oceans and atmosphere distribute solar energy

•Cool waters don’t release as much moisture as warm waters.

•This results in desert environments near some coasts.

Thermohaline “Conveyor Belt”

•Cold, salty water sinks to form a deep-water current

•Warm, salty water from Gulf carried north on currents, flows by Northern Europe, where it

warms and brings moisture

Weather is not Climate

- Climate refers to conditions averaged over long periods of time. Because climate is an

average, some short-term variation is expected, but trends have significance.

- Weather is a daily phenomenon. The fact that the temperature may be high or low on any

given day is related to the season and local atmospheric conditions.

Climate Forcings

A climate forcing is a factor which influences Earth’s radiative balance.

•Some factors influence climate on long timescales (e.g., plate tectonics)

•Others on short timescales (e.g., volcanic eruptions).

A positive forcing promotes energy absorption and/or reduces energy loss.

A negative forcing reduces energy absorption and/or promotes energy loss.

 Climate forcing: Cryosphere

•Part of hydrosphere tied up in ice

•Frozen year-round

•Includes sea ice, ice caps, glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost

• 10% of earth today is covered in ice

• Increased global ice has a high albedo: solar reflectance

•reflects incoming solar radiation -> more cooling

• Presence of ice is a negative forcing

Cryosphere

Glaciers make up a tiny fraction But melting glaciers can speed up global warming

•Lower albedo

•Melting permafrost releases CO2and especially methane

• Some melting glaciers are a signal of persistent warming

BUT warming conditions can also bring more winter precipitation -> glacier growth!

- Prior to 2002 data suggested that the Antarctic ice sheet was accumulating ice.

- Since 2002 the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have steadily lost mass.

Positive forcing: Solar Radiation

• Increased solar radiation (i.e., due to sunspots)

• increased solar energy to Earth

• Medieval Warming Period (1000-1400 CE): sunspots

• Little Ice Age (1400-1800 CE): decreased solar activity

Climate forcing: Atmospheric composition

•Permanent gases: N2and O2

 - proportions stay constant

- Little affect on climate

•Variable gases: H2O, CO2, CH4, N2O, O3, halocarbons

•proportions vary with time and global climatic conditions

•play important roles in atmospheric dynamics

- Aerosols: Volcanic ash, smog, pollutants

•Particles -> shield solar radiation

•proportions vary with time and conditions

Indicators of current change: global temperature anomaly

•Anomaly: difference in measured temperature from a reference temperature

•Reference: Average temp of 1951-1980

•136 years of measured temperature records

•19 of the 20 years warmest years on record have occurred since 2001

•2016 was the warmest year on record

Actually... Climate is ALWAYS changing

- Longer term fluctuations plate tectonics –positions of continental bodies

- Shorter term fluctuations variations in Earth’s orbit, rotation

Features of a Warmer Climate

• Continents spread apart

•greater seafloor spreading -> ahem volcanism! -> CO2released to atmosphere

•Shallower oceans, ocean crust is younger and less dense

• NO glacial ice, except at highest mountain altitudes

• Sea level high

•Ordovician (485 mya)-Silurian (419 mya)

•Sea levels 200 m above today!

•Mesozoic -> Dinosaurs

Features of a Cooler Climate

•Sea level low

• glaciers cover 10-30% of Earth’s surface

• less seafloor spreading

•Continents bunched together

• Pangaea

•650 mya, 2.4 bya: possible “Snowball Earth”

• Albedo: Snowpack reflects incoming solar radition

• Ice begets ice

Climate Change 2: Are we currently in an ice age?!?

- Pleistocene Ice Age

During the last ~2 million years, Earth’s climate has been globally cold

enough to allow continental glacial ice to grow

Quaternary Period/Pleistocene Ice Age

•Multiple ice ages occurred over the past 1.8 MY

•Glaciers covered 10-30% of Earth’s surface

•Maximum extent: 21,000 years ago

• Global sea level >100 m lower than today

Ice ages are relatively rare

• 2.4-2.1 Ga: snowball Earth?

• 850-630 Ma: Late Proterozoic Ice Age

• 460-430 Ma: Ordovician-Silurian – mass extinction event

• 350-260 Ma: rapid expansion of plants -> Permian Ice Age

• 2 Ma: Pleistocene Ice Age

Why is the recurrence interval so long?

•Plate Tectonics

•Positions of land masses dramatically influence climate

Plate tectonics can isolate ocean currents

Massive continental body around South Pole prevents circumpolar ocean circulation around

Antarctica

Not just about land mass ...ocean circulation

•Circumpolar southern ocean -> COLD!

•Opening of Drake Passage allows cold and denseAntarctic waters to flow into Atlantic Ocean

• Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW)

Plate Tectonics and the Pleistocene Ice Age

•Meanwhile, in Northern Hemisphere, Europe separates from North America

•cold, dense ocean water able to flow across Icelandic-Faroes Ridge and into Atlantic Basin

•North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW)

•2-3 Mya: Isthmus of Panama rises, joins North and South America

•creates isolated circulation cells

•Gulf stream (warm ocean current) carries warmer water (and moisture) to northern reaches of

Northern Hemisphere

•glacial ice -Pleistocene Ice Age!

 Shorter term (10k -100 ky) climate fluctuations: Milankovitch cycles

Milankovitch cycles: variations in Earth’s orbit & rotational axis with respect to the sun

1) Changes in eccentricity: orbit about sun

2) Changes in obliquity: rotational axis

3) Changes in precession: rotational axis

Milankovitch cycles alter how much insolation (solar radiation) the Earth receives

Milankovitch Cycles

1) Eccentricity: Earth’s revolution about the Sun becomes more or less elliptical Over a time

period of ~100,000 years

2) Obliquity:Earth’s angle of obliquity (tilt on axis) varies between 22.5 and 24.5 degrees

Period of 41,000 years

Today: 23.44 degrees

3) Precession: Earth’s rotational axis precesses like a gyroscope angle is “fixed”, but orientation

varies

Period of 26,000 years

• Changes in eccentricity, obliquity, and precession occur independently

• Net effect is summative

• Affects the amount of insolation

Within the Pleistocene Ice Age…

•Glacialperiods: significantly colder

•Glacial ice grows – up to 30% of earth’s surface

• creates vast ice sheets

•Water tied up in ice -> Global sea level ê

• up to 40 m (120 ft) lower than today 10,000 years ago

•Interglacial periods: significantly warmer

•Glacial ice shrinks

• smaller ice sheets

•Water released as melt -> Surface runoff é

•Global sea level é

• up to 8 m (24 ft) higher than today120,000 years ago

Characteristics of an Interglacial

•Our interglacial, est. ~12,000 YA

•Less than 30% ice cover

• We are currently at ~10%

•Higher sea level

•Warmer temperatures

• June 2020: 44th consecutive June above the 20thcentury average

•Increasing levels of CO2

Characteristics of an Interglacial

•Our interglacial, est. ~12,000 YA

•Less than 30% ice cover

•We are currently at ~10%

•Higher sea level

•Warmer temperatures

•June 2020: 44thconsecutive June above the 20thcentury average

•Increasing levels of CO2

 Climate Change 3: How do we know about past climate?

Three different strategies to gather data

1) Instrumental record: Modern (1860-present)

2) Historical record: (~4000 BCE, maybe)

3) Paleo-Proxy Record: (Farther)

Is “global warming” really a thing?

1. The Earth has definitely been colder than it is today.

2. But it has also been warmer than it is today.

3. AND we’re in an interglacial period

When interglacials occur throughout geologic history:

•CO2 levels rose

•Sea level rose

•Global temperatures rose

Historical Record

•Direct observations

•Written recollections like books, newspapers, journals

•artwork

•Inferred observations

•i.e. grain prices higher due to scarcity

Any time before a human record, must use a proxy

- proxy: a stand-in, the “authority to represent someone else”

•No thermometers: NOT a direct measurement of temperature

•Instead, you measure changes that you know are in response to climate
 - Vegetation: tree cores, lichenometry

•In the rock record: direct evidence of glaciers via deposits that could only have formed in cold

climates

•Huge, ancient ice sheets: Ice cores

•Sea floor deposits: 18O Isotope records from ocean sediment cores

Biological proxy -- Dendrochronology: Climate and timing from tree cores

•Growth of trees depends on climate

•rainy, warm: fastest growth -> thick annual growth ring

•dry, chilly: slowest growth -> thin annual growth ring

•Record can extend >10,000 years

Other biological proxy climate records come from…

•Pollen

•preserved in sedimentary layers

•pollen assemblages reflect climate

•Carbon-14

•Formed when atmospheric nitrogen is irradiated

•Can give information about sunspot activity

•Found in bio samples or tree ring data

•Coral growth rings

•CaCO3contains oxygen isotopes

•Can trap trace metals in structure

A geological proxy:Ocean or lake sediment cores

•Recovered by drilling into bed

•Chemical signatures serve as proxy records for climate change

A geological proxy...Glaciers

•In colder climates (high latitudes and altitudes), snowpack accumulates

•Firn: Weight of snowpack/ice forms dense, tightly-spaced snow crystals

•Over time and pressure, firn -> solid ice

•Glaciers grow only when

accumulation: snowpack from winter precipitation is GREATER THAN

ablation: summer melting

Glacier ice has MASSIVE erosive power

Glacier ice has MASSIVE erosive power

•Glacier: large mass of ice that can move downhill under the influence of gravity

•Avg speed: 1 m/day

•Surging glacier: several m/day

•Moving downhill erodes LARGE amounts of rock

•Scour U-shaped valleys

•Transport capacity is HUGE Mt. Hood, OregonGlacier ice has MASSIVE erosive power

Evidence of Glaciers

- Striations: scour marks carved by glaciers

- Till: mix of finely-ground and coarse debris deposited by glacier

Moraines: Debris pile -- scoured and carried by glacier, piled up at its toe or on its sides

Ice core climate records

•Snow falling on the ground as a snapshot of climate

•Water isotopes
•Traps particulates

•dust

•ash from volcanoes or forest fires

•pollutants

•“bubbles” in ice core trap gases like CO2, others

Atmospheric CO2 is a proxy for temperature

•Measurement from air bubbles and chemical signatures using ice cores taken at Vostok,

Antarctica

•Other ice cores show a similar pattern back to 800,000 years

Atmospheric CO2 levels are controlled by multiple competing processes

Basic components of the silicate-carbonate cycleSources

•Volcanic eruptions

•Ocean outgassing Sinks

•Ocean uptake

•Biological uptake (photosynthesis)

•Subduction of carbonate sediments

•Chemical weathering of silicate minerals

Climate Change 4: Earth’s Energy Budget

1) External: Sun/Earth planetary relationship

•Change in solar output: i.e., sunspots increase solar radiation

•Change in Earth’s orbit or rotation (Milankovitch cycles)

External: Sunspot Activity vs. Global Temperature

•Energy incoming from sun can change over time

•Increased sunspot activity -> positive climate forcing

•Solar cycles and temperature agree pretty well before 1960

•Solar cycles and temperature do NOT agree after 1960

External: Milankovitch Cycles

•Creates a natural climate cycle that is range-bound and can be understood

•We are in a “slight cooling” Milankovitch cycle

What determines Earth’s energy budget?

2) Internal: Radiation within our atmosphere

•Change in radiation reflected from surface

•ice cover

•vegetation cover

•landcover/land use change

•Change in re-radiation trapped by atmosphere

•greenhouse gases

Greenhouse gases are variable gases

•Have always been a part of the atmosphere in minute amounts

•Quantities vary depending on climate conditions

•Tiny changes in gas composition reflect BIG changes in global climate

Greenhouse gases work by trapping energy

•O2and N2do notabsorb infrared light

•CO2does!, H2O does!

•Infrared is invisible to the human eye but you can feel as heat

The Greenhouse Effect - 1

1. ~48% of the sun’s energy passes through the atmosphere to reach the Earth’s surface

2. ~49% of thissunlight is absorbed at Earth's surface by the land, water, and vegetation

The Greenhouse Effect - 2

3. 17% of this absorbed energy is emitted from Earth's surface back into space in the form of

infrared radiation.

4. Of this 17%, 5% (currently) of the infrared radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases in

atmosphere.

5. Greenhouse gasesre-emitthat absorbed energy as infrared radiation back toward the Earth's

surface.

The Greenhouse Effect is our friend!

•NATURAL and NECESSARY

•Earth would be 33 deg C colder without it

•All surface water would be frozen

•Produced by greenhouse gases

•Water vapor

•CO2

•Methane

•N2OThe Greenhouse Effect is our friend!

Internal: The Greenhouse Effect is a positive forcing

•Warmed Earth surface releases infrared radiation

•Some infrared radiation released to space

•Some infrared radiation absorbed and re-released back to earth by gases in the atmosphere

Internal: Ice loss: has a positive forcing

•Since the late 1970s, the Arctic has lost an average of 20,800 square miles of sea ice per year

•Less ice àgreater absorption of solar radiation

•Positive climate forcing

How much does each component contribute to climate???

•CLIMATE MODELS

•Computational algorithms thatpartition each variable

•Informed by current and past conditions

•Use known physical and chemical properties of matter

Climate Change 5: Climate models

Climate Forcings During Last Glacial Period in Pleistocene Ice Age

•Ice sheets increased reflectance; vegetation absorbed CO2

•Greenhouse gases present in decreased abundance

Coming out of the last glacial period, the rate of CO2 increase was much lower than the

modern rate.

•Greenhouse gases in decreased abundance

•Vegetation absorbed CO2

Earth’s Carbon Budget

•Oceans releaseand take up CO2

•Vegetation/landrelease and take up CO2

•Fossil fuel burning + land useonly releaseCO2

Acidified Oceans

Seashells are made from calcium carbonate...

CaCO3 (calcite) + H2O + CO2 àCa2++ 2HCO3-

•DISSOLUTION = NO SOLIDS LEFT

•Fast – on human timescale!

Where does N2O come from?

Natural sources

•Nitrogen cycle– uptake of atmospheric N2by plants and bacteria

•Removed from the atmosphere by certain types of bacteria or when destroyed by ultraviolet

radiation

Where does N2O come from?

Human sources

•Heavy fertilizer use in agriculture

•Rocket fuel, race cars

•Byproduct of nylon production

•Burning of fossil fuels

•Life of average N2O molecule is 114 years – much longer than CO2•Single most important

ozone-depleting substance

•~300x more effective greenhouse gas than CO2

Where does CH4come from?

•Causes a climate forcing 1.5x CO2

•Main sources

•decomposition

•from landfills and other waste management processes

•cow farts

•rice cultivation
•leaky natural gas lines

Black Carbon is Soot

•Particulate byproduct of fossil or biofuel combustion

•Emissions under control in US, Europe

•Less controlled in China, India, less-regulated nations

Strongly light-absorbing

Soils

Earth’s Carbon Budget

•Oceans release and take up CO2

•Vegetation/land release and take up CO2

•Fossil fuel burning + land use only release CO2

Acidified Oceans

Seashells are made from calcium carbonate...uh oh...

CaCO3 (calcite) + H2O + CO2 àCa2++ 2HCO3-

• DISSOLUTION = NO SOLIDS LEFT

• Fast – on human timescale!

Black Carbon is Soot

•Particulate byproduct of fossil or biofuel combustion

•Emissions under control in US, Europe

•Less controlled in China, India, less-regulated nations

Strongly light-absorbing

Takeaways: Climate Change 4

•Greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide) adsorb energy and trap radiation that might otherwise

be radiated back to space.

•On long timescales CO2 levels are determined by the balance of volcanic activity and

chemical weathering of Earth’s crust. Many forcings can influence climate on shorter

timescales.

•Periods in Earth’s history have been warmer than the present day. Atmospheric CO2 levels

have also been higher. HOWEVER, the rate CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere is faster

than at any time in the geological record!!!

•The observed warming trend since the onset of the industrial revolution cannot be

explained by natural climate forcings alone. Anthropogenic forcings are required to

explain the observed warming trend.

Soils 1: weathering

- The Moon and the Earth are made of the same parent material

Weathering vs. Erosion

•Weathering: the breaking down of earth materials over time due to exposure to the elements

•Water, ice, wind

•Weathering turns solid rock into sediment

•Weathered material either:

1) sits in place and becomes a soil

2) is ERODED: sediment removed, transported away, deposited somewhere else

Weathering happens on a surface

Smaller particles -> Increased surface area -> greater weathering

Weathering creates sediment by breaking down rocks

•Two categories of weathering

•Mechanical: physical forces break rock into pieces

•Chemical: breaking bonds so that chemical entity changes

Mechanical Weathering

Physically breaking apart rocks

without a change in composition

Types:

•Hydraulic action, Abrasion, Frost wedging, Thermal expansion, Exfoliation, Biological

Hydraulic Action

•Water forces itself or air into cracks

•Internal pressure increases

•Water recedes -> pressure is released

•Material around the crack weakens until it collapses

Abrasion

- Abrasion: “The process of wearing away”

- Mechanical scraping away of earth materials by water, wind, or ice

- Tiny (or big) grains carried by the water, wind, or ice scour away at stationary rock or

soil-> Sandblasting

- Rivers: the force of rocks and stones carried by the river bash into the river bed and walls

- New material is weathered

- River bed and walls are carved ever deeper

Frost wedging occurs because ice expands

Ice takes up a 9% more volume than the same amount of liquid water
 Thermal expansion

• When heated, matter expands

• When cooled, matter contracts

• Repeated cycles of expansion and cooling = stress

Exfoliation

•Surface peeling, in layers

•When a large igneous (or metamorphic)body, formed deep under the surface under pressure

•Exhumed and exposed

• Confining pressure is released -> rock expands

Biological activity

Plant growth exerts pressure, stressing the integrity of surrounding materials(and also facilitates

chemical weathering)

Chemical weathering

•Change in chemical composition

•Transform rock into 1 or more different compounds

•Types:

•Dissolution

•Hydrolysis

•Oxidation

•ALL REQUIRE WATER

Dissolution

CaCO3 (calcite) + H2O + CO2 -> Ca2+ + 2HCO3-

Water + rock àdissolved ions are taken away

Ex: Acid rain (natural and “man-made”) dissolves limestone

waterCaCO3 (calcite) + H2O + CO2 -> Ca2+ + 2HCO3-

Dissolution weathers limestone to create karst topography

Hydrolysis (chemical weathering of silicates)

Potassium Feldspar + H2CO3 + H2O -> kaolinite (clay) + dissolved SiO2+ (HCO3)-

(Also contains some sodium and calcium)

Hydrolysis

•Water + rock -> a different substance entirely

•Ex: carbonic acid causes feldspar to be converted into clay

•Providence Canyon State Park, GA“Georgia’s Little Grand Canyon”

•Massive gullies of clay up to 150 feet deep

Oxidation

•Oxygen + rock àa different substance entirely Exposure to oxygen (and water) rusts rocks, too

•4Fe + 3O2 -> 2Fe2O3

•Red color in some rocks

Quartz will take over the world

•Last mineral in Bowen’s series

•Resistant to mechanical weathering

•highly resistant to chemical weathering

•Accumulation in sand –beaches, deserts

•Takeaways: Soils 1

• Soils for by weathering (both mechanical and chemical) of the minerals in Earth’s crust
• Minerals in Bowen’s reaction series are unstable at Earth surface conditions. Those that form

last in the series are the least susceptible to weathering (this is why quartz is most abundant

mineral in beach sand).

• Weathering and erosion are related processes. Weathering is the process of

chemically/mechanically altering a material, erosion is the processes of transporting weathered

byproducts as sediment.

• Water is critical for all kinds of weathering processes (both mechanical and chemical). Water

enables eroded sediment to be transported away, enables minerals to dissolve, and promotes

crack development through freeze-thaw cycles.

Soils 2: Products of Weathering (what is a soil?)

Soil is

A) Solid earth material that has been altered such that it can support rooted plant life- Definition

to a soil scientist

B) Any solid earth material that can be removed without blasting- Definition to an engineer

Soil Texture

Loam: fertile soil of roughly equal parts sand, silt, clay + some humus

Pedogenesis: formation of soil

•Soil processes act from top -> down

•Percolation of water

•Mature vs. immature soils are mainly a function of time

Developing a soil: a chemical journey

•O horizon: Organics Only

•A horizon: Minerals with some organics

O and A together = TOPSOIL

•E horizon: Zone of Eluviation

•Eluviation: movement of materials brought into suspension or dissolved by water

•Leaching: stripping of chemicals/materials by washing or dissolution

•B horizon: Zone of accumulation

•Ions from eluvium start to buffer

•Instead of going into solution, now ions start to deposit

•B horizon can be rich in clay

•B horizon can be rich in other ionic compounds

• iron oxides: red – oxygen-rich

• Iron oxides: yellow – oxygen-poor

• Carbonates

•C horizon: “youngest” soil

•partly weathered parent material

- One or more of horizons may be missing if soil is immature

Soils 3: What factors affect soil formation?

1. Parent Material

2. Slope

3. Time

4. Climate

•Temperature

•Precipitation

5. Biome -> animals, vegetation

 Parent material

What soil is derived from

•Bedrock in situ -> Residual soils

Easily weathered material aids soil formation

What soil is derived from

•Unconsolidated material brought by wind, water, or ice -> Transported soils

Easily weathered material aids soil formation

Slope

•Steep slope – soils are thin

•Unstable, high-energy, unable to “rest” and develop

•Shallow slope (bottom lands)

•Thick, dark,rich soils can develop

Time

•Soils develop from the TOP DOWN

•The thicker the soil, the longer it took to develop

Mature soil profile

•Visible layers

•Clear vertical structure

•Can be 40,000-100,000 years in the making

Climate

•Most important factor in soil formation

•Hot, humid climates generate soil faster

•More rain = more chemical weathering

•Higher temperatures = faster chemical weathering

Study of soils: pedology

• Soil types and properties must be considered when building

• Soil characteristics important for determining landslide and earthquake liquefaction risks

• Soil behavior itself may present hazards!

Expanding soils

•Some soils contain the clay mineral smectite

•Expands when wet

•Shrinks when dry

•Causes building challenges and damage where it is present

Is soil erosion a natural hazard?

•Soil Erosion: Grain-by-grain removal of mineral and organic material by wind and/or water

•Soils are eroded by natural processes

•Becomes a hazard when rate of erosion exceeds rate of formation

Gullies

Gully erosion progress through time is very difficult (impossible) to stop and mitigate

Soil erosion can be greatly accelerated by.

•Drought, Floods, Deforestation, Poor farming practices, Overgrazing, Construction practices

Rates of soil erosion are influenced by human activity

• Human activity has increased the rate of soil erosion

• 1/3 of the world’s cropland topsoils are eroding too fast to be replenished

Rates of soil erosion are influenced by human activity

•Takes 500 - 1000 years to form 50 mm (~2 in) of soil

•0.05 mm-0.1 mm per year

•Accelerated erosion removes centuries of soil in less than a decade

• Urban “megagullies”

Impacts of soil erosion

•Loss of arable land

•Making agriculture less productive, or perhaps even, in some areas, impossible

•Food shortages àhigher food costs and famine

•Clogged and polluted waterways

•Soil washes into streams, damaging freshwater and marine habitats

•Increased flooding

•Increased runoff

•Topsoil stripped off àdecreased infiltration

Takeaways: Soils 2

•Soils form from the top down through weathering of rock. A mature soil may take up to

100,000 years to develop.

•Residual soils are formed in place. Transported soils are deposited (e.g., by glacial transport)

•Weathering requires water. Soil development is more extensive in wetter climates.

•A mature soil is characterized by several horizons (layers). O = organic layer; A = topsoil; E =

eluviated zone; B = subsoil (accumulation zone); C = parent material; R = bedrock. One or more

of these horizons are absent in less mature soils.

•Soils composed of expandable clays are construction hazards because the ground expands

and contracts with moisture content.

•Poor agricultural processes accelerate soil loss. Modern farming practices help to minimize
soil loss (crop rotation, windbreakers, contour plowing).

Mass wasting

Three types of movement

•Falls: Free fall of earth material, Ex: rockfall

• Slides: Movement of material as a cohesive, coherent block along a slide plane

•Flows: Movement of unconsolidated material with mixing (flows like a fluid)

Rock slide

•Type of motion: Sliding-– material moves as a coherent, cohesive block

•What’s moving: Large blocks of bedrock

•layered sedimentary or metamorphic rocks weakened at bedding planes

•Sliding surface: TILTED (planar) bedrock

•Bedding plane just below provides a “sliding board”

•Important aspects: RAPID

Soil slip (AKA debris slide or earth slide)

•Type of motion: Sliding – material moves as a cohesive block

•What’s moving: Soil and/or weathered earth material

•Often becomes flowage as it moves downslope

•Sliding surface: STEEP tilted (planar) bedrock or cohesive sediment, often a bedding plane

•Speed: fast (perceptible) or medium (occurring over days)

Shallow soil slips can kill: Jan 11, 2011

1000s killed in Rio de Janeiro province

• Heavy rains in 2011

Slump or Rotational Landslide

• Type of motion: Rotational sliding – material moves as a block

• What’s moving: Cohesive blocks of rock or consolidated earth materials

• Sliding surface: curved bed surface gives rotational component

• Speed: Can be fast, but is the slowest type of slides

Flowage

• Type of motion: MIXING movement of unconsolidated material.

• What’s moving: Loose soil and/or weathered earth material

• Sliding surface: Bed beneath, separated from sliding material by water/air/bedding plane

• Speed:

Rapid: Avalanche, Debris flow, Earth flow

•Very slow: Creep

Flowage – Earthflow

• What’s moving: Wet, partially cohesive, mass of soil and weathered rock

• Rate: Fast

Earthflow in Kemerovo, Russia – 4/1/2015

• Earthflows can move up to 20 km/hr (12 mph)

• This one, originating from a coal mine, toppled pylons and crushed trees

Flowage – Avalanche! (snow slide)

What’s moving: Snow and ice

sometimes with organics, loose rocks, soil

Cohesivemass of snow/ice

- overloaded orweakened planes in the snowpack

- Loose snow: start at a point, then widening downslope

•Rate: INSTANTANEOUS- millions of tons or snow and ice, sliding up to 100 km/hr (60 mph)

Avalanches

•1000s of avalanches annually in mountains of western US and Canada

•Chute: path of least resistance for avalanche

• steepness of slope >25 degrees

• stability of snowpack

• weather

Flowage – Debris flow, mudflow, lahar

• What’s moving: fluid (NOT cohesive) mixture of rocks/sand/mud/water

• intermediate between landslide and waterflood

• Rate: FAST

• Key ingredient: WATER

• flow moves like water, with water, through channels

Slow Flowage: Soil creep

• What’s moving: Rocks and soil down a slope

• Land surface moves more rapidly than underlayment

• Rate: Slow (imperceptible) – mm/yr

•Takes years to move a few meters or ft

•Driven by freezing and thawing of top layers of soil

Complex slide

- Most landslides occur as complex combinations of sliding and flowage

- What’s moving: one or more different types of materials

- Sliding surface: more than one type

 Slide Dynamics

Safety Factor (SF)

Slope stability measured by safety factor (SF)

Ratio: Shear Stress (driving force)/ Shear Strength (resisting force)

SF < 1 = unlikely to slide

SF > 1 = likely to slide

Why water creates conditions for mass wasting

1. Decreases Fs,maxPermeability of sediment/rock allows water to enter between grains or layers

2. Reduces GN Buoyancy from H2O between layers

3. Increases G Added water -> added weight

Type of Earth Materials: Degree of Cementation/Consolidation

•Well-cemented deposits are less likely to fail

•Looser, poorly consolidated materials are more likely to fail

• Ex: Soil slip occurs when unconsolidated materials lie over bedrock

Different materials have different angles of repose

Angle of repose: the steepest angle at which a sloping surface formed of loose material is stable.

Type of rock also determines slope stability

Rock Composition

•Ex: Flaky, fragile shale

• weak rock weathers and erodes quickly ->undermines support -> rockfalls

Topography

•Topographic relief

•Height of hill above land

•High relief = steepness

•Steepness of slope or incline

•Steeper slope àgreater magnitude for driving force

• Mass wasting occurs more in high relief areas

Tectonic activity increases the landslide risk

•Subduction by Juan de Fuca Plate -> pushes UP overriding N. America plate

•Continuing subduction pushes overriding terrain ever higher

•Steeper mountains -> increased a

• Increased risk of landsliding

Oso, Washington mudslide – 3/22/2014

•10:37 am

•Soil from hillside due to heavy rains

•Mudslide splashes through North Fork of Stillaguamish R

•43 killed, 49 homes destroyed

Role of vegetation

• Tree roots add strength and cohesion

• Vegetation provides protective cover that slows surface erosion

• BUT vegetation adds: Weight, Moisture

Humans Increase Landslide Incidence

•Urban watershed issues

• irrigation

• man-made water channel pathways and loads

• disruption of surface and sub-surface drainage

• Added slope weight

–Adding fill material to the top of slopes

–Houses/buildings/infrastructure

• Cutting slope toes to build roads

• Vibrations from traffic and/or blasting

Mass Wasting Mitigation Strategies

A. Prevent or control active movement

Reduce driving force and/or increase resisting force

B. Awareness (and avoidance), Signage and education, Keep people out of the way

Slide or Flow Mitigation

• Install drainage

• Stop waterinfiltration

• Build retaining walls and other structures

• Plant vegetation

Slide/Flow Mitigation: Reinforced toe

Road cut removed portion of slope -> decreased resisting force

•Adding material to base of slope provides stability

•AND boulders permit drainage

Awareness of rockfall hazard

•Daylighting beds: Exposed bedrock with layering parallel to slope

•Large boulders or talus piles at base of cliff

•Linear path of cleared vegetation extending down a hill

Awareness of slide hazard

•Crescent-shaped cracks or terraces on hillside

•Exposed bedrock with layering parallel to slope

•An irregular land surface at the base of a slope

Mitigation: Awareness of debris flow hazard

• Tongue-shaped area of bare soil or rock on hillside

• Linear path of cleared vegetation extending down a hill

• Masses of (loose?) sediment at base of slope

Takeaways: Mass Wasting 2

• Moisture content has a big influence on mass wasting (more water = greater driving force).

• Other factors, e.g., rock type, grain size, slope, vegetation, presence of buildings and roadcuts

also influence the balance between the driving force (gravity) and the restraining force (friction)

• Mitigation of mass wasting hazards usually involves improving drainage and decreasing water

infiltration. Physical restraining structures are also common.

Land Subsidence

•Land subsides (sinks) where resources are extracted from the subsurface.

•Usually this is ground water, but oil, gas and mineral extraction also

contribute to subsidence
 Impacts

Chelyabinsk Airburst

• Small asteroid traveling nearly 7,000 meters per second (AKA Mach 20)

• Did not reach Earth’s surface

• Exploded in the stratosphere, 23 km from Earth’s surface

• Energy release equivalent to 20-30 nuclear explosions

• Largest known asteroid to enter atmosphere since Tunguska airburst (1908)

Chelyabinsk Airburst Damage

•Shock wave from airburst toppled standing people

•>7,000 buildings in 6 cities damaged

•1500 people injured

•Confusion

•Morning commute meant many witnessed the “shooting star”

•Bolide: (astronomy) an object brighter than the moon

•Chelyabinsk = 20x brighter than the sun

•Bolide: (geology) an object capable of impact

SURPRISE it’s a Near Earth Object (how did we miss it?)

• Came toward us from the sun

• Meteor astrophysicists focus efforts on monitor possible impacts from much larger objects

• NASA planetary scientist Paul Abell: “We used to think that a 20 meter-sized meteor wasn’t

that big a threat. But the Chelyabinsk meteor was only 20 meters and we saw what it could do.”

• only ~500 asteroids of 10-20 m have ever been spotted

Asteroids
• Found in asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

• Composition: rock and/or metals

Comets

•Complete massively large orbits around the sun

•Comet body composed of:

• Rock

• Ice (water or carbon dioxide)

• heats as it approaches sun àglowing tail of steam (and dust)

Meteoroid, Meteor, Meteorite (what’s the difference?)

• Meteoroids: asteroids that find their way to Earth

• Meteors: meteoroids that enter and are destroyed by Earth’s atmosphere

• “shooting star”: friction as they fall through air produces heat and light

• airburst

• Meteorite: hits the Earth

Iron-nickel meteorites

•Regmaglypts (ovaloid depressions)

•Widmanstätten patterns:

Fingers of crystalline iron-nickel alloys make a geometric pattern in finely interwoven layers

The REALLY big meteorites don’t leave chunks behind

- 1st discovered on Earth: BarringerCrater, Arizona

- Impact event: 49,000 years ago

30-50 meter diameter meteorite + Earth’s surface

- 1st discovered on Earth: BarringerCrater, Arizona

 - Impact event: 49,000 years ago

Volcanic Crater vs. Impact Crater

Volcanic

• Origin: eruption pushed out from under surface (magma chamber)

• Location determined by tectonic setting

• Lower T & P involved

• T & P applied from below

Meteorite

• Origin: impact from above Earth’s surface

• Location is completely random

• Higher T & P involved

• T & P applied from above

Two types of impact craters

• Simple

• Originate from impacts with “smaller” objects (< 6 km)

• Ex. Barringer Crater

• Complex

• Originate from impacts with “larger” objects (> 6 km)

• Rim collapses more completely

• Center uplifts following impact

• Ex: Mistastin Lake in Canada

Anatomy of a simple crater

- bowl-shaped depression with upraised rim

 - Ejecta Blanket blown up and out upon impact radially distributed, thickest blanket

nearest crater

- Extreme pressures at impact site, Heat forms tektites: melted, cemented rock

Impact events are rare...

•But they definitely occur!

•Magnitude vs frequency

•Rare to find a well-preserved crater on Earth’s surface

4.45 By: Theia collides with Earth

• Established Earth as a proper “planet”

• definition: clears its own orbit

• Produced the moon

• impact spewed asteroids as a ring around Earth

• over time, accreted to become moon

• Evidence: earth and moon materials are similar chemically (some internal structures in Earth’s

mantle may be remnants of Theia)

2.023 Bya: Vredefort Dome

• Earth’s largest impact crater

• Meteorite was likely 5-10 km across

• Crater was over 300 km across when first formed

• remaining ring and hill structure formed from rebound

• UNESCO World Heritage Site: Earth’s oldest terrestrial impact crater

1.85 By: Sudbury Crater in Ontario, Canada

• Earth’s 2ndlargest terrestrial impact crater

• Meteorite 10-15 km in diameter

• Scattered debris globally

• Rock fragments have been found in Minnesota

1.85 By: Sudbury Crater in Ontario, Canada

• Difficult to see on the ground or on aerial imagery

• Enriched in Ni and Cu

65 Mya: Chicxulub Crater, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

•Submerged under Gulf of Mexico

•3rd largest

•Created HUGE tsunamis

•Contributed to dinosaur extinction

35.7 Mya: Popigai Crater,Siberia

•4th largest terrestrial impact crater

• 100 km diameter

•Caused by 5-8 km diameter meteorite

Popigai Crater impact diamonds

•Shock pressures instantly transformed graphite deposits into diamond

• impure, nanoscale

• great for industrial uses

•Designated as a Geopark by UN

35.5 Mya: Chesapeake Bay Crater?!?

•Largest crater in the US

• 85 km in diameter and 1.3 km deep

• Water, sediment, and shattered rock tossed into the atmosphere

• Tsunami could have overtopped Blue Ridge Mountains

• Simultaneous craters?

• Toms Canyon impact crater off continental shelf in New Jersey

• Popigai!

Chesapeake Impact Crater: Effects today

•Mass wasting and subsidence caused around the impact site

• Formed the Chesapeake Bay!

• Continues to cause subsidence

•Affects groundwater flow

Mass Extinction

• Sudden loss of large numbers of plants and animals, relative to new species being added

Uniformitarianism

• James Hutton introduced in 1785, popularized by Charles Lyell

• “Present is the key to the past”

• Earth *must* be much older than 6,000 years

• Geologic processes we see today have been acting, slowly and steadily, throughout geologic

time

• Elegant, far-reaching

vs catastrophism

• Based on Archbishop Ussher’s calculations

• “Young Earth” = 6,000 years

• Scholars couldn’t understand how mountains, river valleys, etc could have formed so quickly
•processes must be catastrophic in nature

BUT, occasionally...

•Evidence of catastrophic events is discovered

•impact craters

•rapid extinctions

•Refine Hutton & Lyell’s idea to include a new concept...

Punctuated uniformitarianism

Mass Extinctions usually involve climate change

• Plate Tectonics

• slow: moving habitats to different locations

• continents coalesce àice age

• continents spread out àwarming period

• Excessive/extreme Volcanic activity

• Flood basalts

• Lava erupts gently, releasing CO2, H2O àwarming

• Silica-rich explosive eruptions produce ash àcooling

• Impact or airburst

• Can be very large in scope, influence oceans, burn forests, block out sun with debris (cooling =

impact winter)

Major Mass

Extinction Events

1. Ordovician

Extinction Event
2. Permian

Extinction Event

3. K-Pg (or K-T)

Extinction Event

445 Mya: Ordovician Extinction Event

•3rd-largest extinction in Earth’s history

•2 peak dying times, separated by 100 ky

•Most life was aquatic: 85% of sea life wiped out

•Trilobite spp

•Brachiopods

445 Mya: Ordovician Extinction Event

•Probable cause: Climate Change

•Transition from warm global regime into ice age

• Vast ice sheet grew in the southern hemisphere

• Lowered sea level

• Cooler global temps -> cooler oceans

250 Mya: Permian Extinction Event

•“The Great Dying”

• 80-90% of all life

•No conclusive evidence to suggest why, but hints abound...

•Extreme levels of volcanism in Siberia

• Fissure volcanoes

• Evidence: flood basalts

• Flood basalts -> gas -> global warming

66 Mya: K-Pg Extinction

•Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary

•70% of all genera died off

•No more dinosaurs

•paved the way for Age of Mammals

•Asteroid was the primary cause- evidence?

Geologic evidence for extinction event

1st Iridium super-enriched only in clay layer dated to boundary

• trace element found in meteorites

• Sudden appearance = a rapid event?

2nd Fossils

• Below Ir layer: dinos

• Above Ir layer: no dinos

3rd Found Chicxulub Crater!

Chixulub impact: Sequence of Events

a) Asteroid moving at 30 km/s second

b) Meteorite impacts Earth. Produces crater 200 km in diameter, 40 km deep

•Shock waves crush, melt rocks, vaporized rocks on outer fringe

c) Seconds to Minutes after impact

•Ejecta blanket forms

•Mushroom cloud of of dust and debris – blocks sun

•Fireball from entry sets off global wildfires

•Asteroid vaporizes sulfate-rich marine rocks -> chucks sulfuric acid into the ocean &

atmosphere

•Tsunamis from impact, over 300 m high, wash over global oceans

d) One Month later

• No sunlight, no photosynthesis

• Continued acid rain

• Food chain stopped

e) Several months later

• Sunlight returns

• Acid rain stops

• Plants start to grow on burned landscape