Climate of the Past

Habits in numerical model construction

Lucie Babel, Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University October 2, 2019

Interviews were conducted with modellers about the construction of their model.

Numerical models are omnipresent in climate research. Constructed to understand the past, to forecast future climate and to gain new knowledge on natural processes and interactions, they enable the simulation of experiments at otherwise unreachable time and spatial scales. These instruments have long been considered to be fed – let even determined – by either theories or observations alone. ...[Read More]

Magnetic minerals: storytellers of environmental and climatic conditions

Stephanie Scheidt, Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Cologne, Germany July 9, 2019

Curves representing the magnetic signals of minerals

Name of proxy Environmental Magnetism (also known as enviromagnetics) Type of record Environment and climate proxy Paleoenvironment Sedimentary environments (for the most part) Period of time investigated Present times to millions of years (depending on the preservation conditions) How does it work? Magnetism is a physical property that results from the behaviour of elementary particles in any sub ...[Read More]

How earthworms can help us understand past climates?

Charlotte PRUD’HOMME, Research group for Terrestrial Palaeoclimates, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany December 19, 2018

Earthworms calcite granules from the µm to the mm scale

Name of proxy Earthworm calcite granules (ECG) Type of record Paleotemperature and paleoprecipitation reconstruction; radiocarbon dating Paleoenvironment Continental environments – loess/paleosol sequences Period of time investigated Mostly Last full Glacial cycle – from 112,000-15,000 years Before Present (BP) (or older depending on the preservation of the granules). How does it work? Earth ...[Read More]

How glowing sediment can help to decipher the Earth’s past climate !

Svenja Riedesel, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom September 3, 2018

The glowing sediment

The last 2.5 Million years of the Earth’s history (termed Quaternary) are characterised by climatic cycles oscillating between warm (interglacial) and cold (glacial) periods. To be able to fully understand and interpret past climate variations the development of accurate and precise chronological techniques is crucial. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating is a strong geochronological too ...[Read More]