500 words essay
Geobiology is the study of the interactions that occur between the biosphere and the geosphere. It must include elements of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere. When I looked up geobiology a lot of the articles came up about climate change.
Geologists think of the last 50 million years as the recent past, both because they represents only about one percent of the age of the earth. As well as because plate tectonics, the geologic process that controls conditions within the solid part of the earth, has operated without major change during that time period. This is the time period that is most relevant to gaining insights about earth’s climate. Which can be applied to the present-day global warming. Geological record of ancient climate is good. Ancient temperatures can be determined very precisely, because the composition of the shells of corals and other marine organisms varies measurably with it. The plants and animals that lived during a given time and are now preserved as fossils indicate whether the climate was wet or dry. Overall climatic trend has been cooling, from an unusually warm period. This is called the Eocene Optimum. Before like 55-45 million years ago, there was a cool period, colloquially called the Ice Age. It ended just 20,000 years ago. The overall range in temperature was huge it was about 35°F. During the Eocene Optimum it was warm that Antarctica was ice-free. The ice caps did not start to form there until about 35 million years ago. Palm trees grew at high latitudes. As well cold-blooded animals, such as crocodiles, lived in the Arctic. The earth’s climate is highly variable. During the Eocene Optimum and the Ice Age, though in both cases life was more abundant in some parts of the world than in others. The fossil record indicates that forests were common during the Eocence Optimum. But in some areas were vegetated steppes and deserts. While the great glaciers of the Ice Age were lifeless, extremely large mammals inhabited lower latitudes. Some species adapted and others went extinct. Climate during the Ice Age was unstable. Many swings of more than 10°F. The Milankovitch cycles, which is a cycle due to the gravitational influence of the moon and planets. The timing of these swings closely follows regular fluctuations in the tilt of the earth’s axis and the shape of its orbit around the sun. The magnitude can be reliably calculated.
Another article stated that the a changing climate has been the norm throughout the 4.6 billion year history of the Earth. Recent geological past, climate swings have given us repeated glaciations separated by warmer intervals. Climate is intimately connected to the evolution of life, to the erosion and formation of rocks, and even to the generation of mountains. The connections is the transfer of carbon from one place is a process known as the carbon cycle. Carbon combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to form carbon dioxide. For the future, the current global warming trend will likely continue into the future. A number of scientific analyses indicate, that rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are contributing to climate change. The worldwide changes will likely continue at a slow rate. A eventual loss of all ice, a worldwide rise in sea-level is estimated to be on the order of 25 feet will happen. This would result in flooding the world's coastal cities.
Heidy
Independent References:
http://www.geologicresources.com/global_warming.html
https://www.geosociety.org/gsa/positions/position10.aspx
https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/climaterecord
References:
https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/07/11/what-geology-has-to-say-about-global-warming
/https://downeastlakes.org/what-geology-has-to-say-about-global-warming-by-william-menke/