Clues to Past Climate Change

• How can we determine what the climate

was like thousands of years ago? We
make use of proxy records.
• Proxy Records:
• stores of natural information that are
indirect records of climate, and can be
measured to give clues about past climate
 Ice Cores
• The ice in Greenland and Antarctica contains air bubbles
that have been trapped. The ice is drilled for long
cylinders of ice called ice cores. The ice at the top is
most recent, and the bottom may be up to 800,000
years old. Ice cores can be cut into thin slices and the
air bubbles analyzed for:
• the amount of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide
in the air when the air bubbles were formed;
• the amount of oxygen, which gives information about air
temperature;
We know that during warm periods,
levels of greenhouse gases were
higher, and that during cooler
periods, the levels were lower.
 Tree Rings and Coral Reefs
• Tree rings and coral reefs add one layer of
growth every year.
• a warm, wet year will produce a thick tree ring,
whereas a cold, dry year will produce a thin ring;
reef rings are affected by ocean temperature;

• rings for living and dead trees provide proxy

climate data as far back as 10,000 years;
Petrified Modern
 Rock and Ocean Sediment
• Layers of soil and rock build up over time on the Earth’s
surface, and layers of sediment form layers of rock on
the ocean floor. These layers can give clues such as:
• fossils of pollen grains to identify what plants were
growing (depends on temperature);

• fossils of marine plants and animals;

• the amount of precipitation (thicker layers of mud

indicate more rain, which washed the soil into the body
of water)