SOLAR

COMETARY
& CLIMATIC IMPACTS
ON HUMANITY
Victor Gostin
University of Adelaide
Australia
 ✦ The SUN is our main
source of heat and life,
and our livelihood
depends on its
fluctuating activity

SUN through
X-RAY eyes

Comet and aurora

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ICE AGES and SEALEVELS

NORTHERN ICE CAP

✦ During the ICE AGES sealevels
were low and exposed most of the
continental shelves
✦ During the warm periods sea levels
were high and drowned the shelves
by some 120m [360ft]
✦ Recorded in the ice core from
Vostok, Antarctica

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 ✦ Sea temperature
LGM LGM history off Santa
Barbara plus
temperatures in
Greenland ice core

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✦ Orbital controls over greenhouse gases

W.F. Ruddiman
Sci.Am. March
2005
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✦ Solar radiation & methane concentrations

W.F. Ruddiman Sci.Am.

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March 2005
✦ Orbital cycles & CO2 concentrations

W.F. Ruddiman Sci.Am.

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March 2005
HUMAN ACTIVITIES & GREENHOUSE GASES

W.F. Ruddiman Sci.Am. March 2005 8

HUMAN ACTIVITIES & GREENHOUSE GASES

W.F. Ruddiman Sci.Am. March 2005 9

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W.F. Ruddiman Sci.Am. March 2005
 THE GAIA THEORY
Since the Earth was
born, the Sun’s heat
has increased by 25%

YET the Earth’s

surface temperature
has only fluctuated
within limits comfort-
The Earth System behaves as a single, self- able to life
regulating system comprised of physical, chemical,
biological and human components - 2001, the
Amsterdam Declaration
Gaia refers to this self-regulating Earth system: the
science of the living Earth as seen from space
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 THE GAIA THEORY
✦ 1989: World Meteorological Org., the UN
Environmental Program (UNEP), and the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) were established
✦ BUT it was not until the Amsterdam
Declaration in 2001 that scientists
acknowledged the Earth as a self-
regulating entity
✦ What is needed now however, is the goal
of sustaining the habitability of our planet
James Lovelock 2006
“The Revenge of Gaia”
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 GAIA IN PERIL
✦ Sustaining the habitability of
our planet is made most
difficult
✦ by the explosion of human
population
✦ huge addition of greenhouse
gases
✦ reducing biodiversity
✦ replacing natural ecosystems
with farmland
James Lovelock 2006
“The Revenge of Gaia”
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 GAIA IN PERIL
We are currently interfering with
temperature regulation by
turning up the heat and then
simultaneously removing the
natural systems that help to
regulate it

James Lovelock 2006

“The Revenge of Gaia”
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 Three
post-
glacial
“floods”
or fast
rises of
sealevel
✦ All coastal
communities
were severely
disturbed
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Atlantis in
the Celtic
Sea?
✦ Drowned by rapid rise
in sea level
✦ “Atlantis of the west:
the case for Britain’s
drowned megalithic
civilization” by Paul
Dunbavin, 1992

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 The dry Dogger
Bank was soon
to be flooded

✦ BY 9000 BP THE CLIMATE HAD WARMED AND

FORESTS COVERED NW EUROPE
✦ ENGLAND BECAME AN ISLAND 8000 BP
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 TODAY

✦ CLIMATE &
HUMAN
HISTORY
✦ Summary of
7150 BP last 12 000
years for the
northern
hemisphere
HOLOCENE
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5150 BC
=7150 BP
✦ Recorded in
the ancient
legend of
Gilgamesh
✦ Later reused
in the Hebrew
text

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 Profile through the Black Sea shelf

✦ Modern muds covering ancient landscapes with soils

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Human migrations after the
Black Sea Flood

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Before the Sahara dried
up and people moved
to the Nile River valley

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 5000-4600 B.P.
✦ First Egyptian
dynasty and
the great
pyramids
✦ At around the
same time, in
Norte Chico,
Peru, cities and
Stonehenge was started pyramids

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Eastern Mediterranean
✦ Santorini or the island of
Thera erupted violently 1627-
1600 B.C.
✦ =3600 before present
✦ It spread a huge fan of
volcanic ash over the Eastern
Mediterranean.
✦ Ash and sulphuric acid from
this event occur in the
Greenland ice cap, and frost
damage to trees in California.
✦ This ended the
flourishing Minoan
civilization 24
 TODAY

COMET
COMET

COMET

COMET

COMET

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✦ Mayan cities collapsed in three stages:
✦ Green: by 810 AD
✦ Pink: by 860 AD
✦ Purple: by 910 AD
✦ The timing corresponds to severe
droughts
✦ Many people survived and their
descendents populate the region today

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29
 TODAY

✦ CLIMATE &
HUMAN
HISTORY
✦ Summary of
last 12 000
years for the
northern
hemisphere
HOLOCENE
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✦ Revealed
by the
detailed
history
obtained
from the
tree-rings
of ancient
swamp
oaks in
Europe

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 TREE-RING DATING

OLDEST

Step-wise means of
counting the years
when the rings were
YOUNGEST
laid down.

✦ New Scientist
May 19, 2001
Swamp oaks back to over 7000 years
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Bristlecone pine back to 11000 years
 TODAY

COMET
COMET

COMET

COMET

COMET

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Fiery Dragons and Celestial Snakes
✦ Legends of dragons (flying
reptiles), “celestial snakes”
and “feathered serpents” exist
in cultures around the world.
✦ The long tail of a comet could
be imagined to represent a
snake, with multiple, lesser
tails being seen as wings.
✦ The association of these
creatures in some cultures
with destruction and extreme
weather, could relate to an
ancient ‘close call’ or impact
from a comet.

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Comet_McNaught
Lester Barnes, Cummins
S.A. 24-1-07

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 Chinese Comet Omens

✦ Chinese rulers of the Han dynasty (5th Century

BCE) kept an ‘atlas’ of comets to aid in predicting
what the appearance of a comet meant. Each
comet depicted was accompanied by a
description of the omens relating to it.
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Comets as Bad Omens
✦ Throughout history, comets
have been seen as omens of
change and disaster in many
cultures.
✦ Comets sometimes imagined as
swords, or the hair of mourning
women, therefore associated
with war and death.
✦ Babylonians believed comets
presaged all kinds of disasters.
Greeks and Romans associated
them with bloody warfare.
✦ The appearance of a comet was
associated with the birth and
death of rulers and with victory
and defeat in war.
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Some Famous Comet
Omens
✦ Comets were associated with the deaths
of Julius Caesar, Emperor Claudius and
with the Civil Wars between Augustus,
Pompei and Anthony.
✦ Comet Halley appeared before the Battle
of Hastings in 1066 and was considered
a good omen by the French (after their
victory).
✦ The appearance of a comet encouraged
Montezuma to accept, rather than
oppose, arrival of Cortez, leading to the
downfall of the Aztec empire.
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 From Comet to
Swastika?
✦ The swastika: one of the most ancient cross symbols
and a widely recognised good-luck symbol before the
Nazis.
✦ Ancient Chinese depiction of a comet has a
‘swastika-like’ appearance.
✦ Did an early comet (Encke predecessor?) with
multiple jets, give rise to the four-armed symbol
found around world?

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 Comet Wild-2 (240 km across)

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Stardust spacecraft C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\BBC NEWS Science-Nature Detailed picture of comet's heart.htm
 rare

frequency

common

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IN SUMMARY ✦ Human evolution has been
influenced by strong
fluctuations in Earth’s
climate and sea levels, as
well as volcanic and
cometary catastrophes.
✦ Lacking scientific
explanations to such
environmental crises our
ancestors have explained
these in myths and
religions.

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