Reference no: EM133876131 , Length: Words Count:250

Assignment:

I'm not implying that Global Climate Change (or Global Warming) is not happening or that we are not impacting the trend. What I am questioning is the use of Ice Core Data as a proof of current trends.

Gas bubble studies of ice cores can give us the average yearly air temperature and the air chemistry (CO2, CH4, O2, N2, and Ar) going back over 800,000 years. But the bubbles, according to the NSF articles and the head NSF researcher, don't form until the ice is buried somewhere between 50 and 100 meters or basically its about 10,000 years old. To me then, they are saying, that the fourth peak on this graph is not a true measure of atmospheric conditions for the last 10,000 years.

But still what other information about the Earth's last 800,000 years can we get from Ice Cores? Let us journey back to Module 7 in Lecture and think again about our Super Volcano. A major eruption throws ash into the upper atmosphere which can circle the globe many times. Look up 'the year without a summer for North America, 1816' as an example. That ash is composed of microscopic glass shards called 'tephra'. Could that tephra show up in Antarctica and/or Greenland? I thing so.

Now for your Discussion Topic: What other studies could you do of these Ice Cores that would help advance our knowledge of our planet. What about the mass extinctions we identified in the Grand Canyon? Come up with a PHD proposal if you wish in your 250 word discussion.