Palaeoclimates and their Modelling: With special reference to the Mesozoic era - Hardcover

Allen, J.R.L.; Hoskins, B.J.; Valdes, P.J.; Sellwood, B.W.; Spicer, R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0412563304 ISBN 13: 9780412563300

Publisher: Springer, 1994

Synopsis

The climate of the Earth has undergone many changes and for those times when geologic data are widespread and abundant the Mesozoic appears to have been one of the warmest intervals. This was a time during which the single continent Pangea disintegrated into continental units similar to those of today, a time when there were no significant polar ice caps and sea level was generally much higher than at the present time, and a time when dinosaurs apparently dominated terrestrial faunas and the flowering plants evolved. Understanding this alien world, ancestral to ours, is intrinsically interesting, intellectually challenging, and offers opportunities for more effective targeting of sites where commercially important geological resources may be found. It also provides critical insights into the operation of coupled Earth systems (biospheric, atmospheric, hydrospheric and geospheric) under extreme 'greenhouse' conditions, and therefore may have relevance to possible future global change. Our intention in organizing this Discussion Meeting was to bring together those who gather and interpret geologic data with those who model global climates from first principles. The community of workers who study the Quaternary have made significant advances by integrating and comparing palaeodata and climate model experiments. Although we have focused not on the Quaternary 'icehouse' but on the Mesozoic 'hothouse' climate we are well aware that approaches used in the study of the Quaternary may have relevance to earlier times.

About this title

Review

The book shows what can begin to be achieved when information, techniques and insights from a wide range of fields are considered together. - Pascal-Geode

Synopsis

At many times in the geological past the climate of the Earth appears to have been significantly different from that at the present time. Some of the consequences of the Quaternary "icehouse" are beginning to be better understood. However, during the Mesozoic era our planet appears to have been generally more equable (a"greenhouse earth"). Crucial evidence for the existence of major continental ice-caps and associated tundra zones is lacking. The purpose of this book is to faciliate the integration of available geological information - the incomplete evidence relating to Mesozoic palaeoclimates - with insights that may be derived from climate modelling of a meteorological character (e.g. GCM's). By such an integration of meteorological and geological approaches future patterns of possible climate change, and the localized consequences of such changes, may be better predicted. The book shows what can begin to be achieved when information, techniques and insights from a wide range of fields are considered together.

The juxaposition of climate modelling, geological collations and interrelational interpretations should make this book of particular use to researchers and postgraduate students working and teaching in the broad areas of environmental studies and climate change, as well as others in the more conventional areas of the Earth and atmospheric sciences. This book should be of interest to postgraduates and researchers in earth science, geography and environmental sciences; particularly in palaeoclimatology and climate modelling.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0412563304
• ISBN 13: 9780412563300
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 149