| Topic |
Sub-topic |
| Topic 0. Introduction to the subject |
0.1. Objectives
0.2. Organization of topics and contents;
0.3. Laboratory practicals and seminars;
0.5. Assessment. |
| Topic 1. Basic concepts and (paleo)climate change |
1.1. Earth's climate;
1.2. Time scales of climate change;
1.3. Climate change and variability
1.4. Earth's energy balance and (palaeo)temperature;
1.5. Forcing mechanisms, feedback, and response;
1.6. Equilibrium climate sensitivity and temperature thresholds. |
| Topic 2. Archives and proxies |
2.1. Introduction to the concepts of archive and proxy in palaeoclimatology and palaeoceanography;
2.2. Types of archives;
2.3. Micropaleontological proxies and transfer functions;
2.4. Geochemical proxies in foraminifera;
2.5. Environmental magnetism;
2.6. Sedimentological proxies;
2.7. Uncertainty analysis in palaeoclimate reconstructions. |
| Topic 3. Chronologies |
3.1. The importance of chronology for deciphering time and rates of climate change;
3.2. Radiometric dating methods (e.g., radiocarbon and uranium-thorium);
3.3. Oxygen isotope stratigraphy and stratigraphic correlations. |
| Topic 4. Climate change at the tectonic scale |
4.1. Plate tectonics, weathering, CO2, and long-term climate;
4.2. Icehouse and Greenhouse climates.
|
| Topic 5. Climate change at the orbital scale |
5.1. Astronomical control of solar radiation;
5.2. Insolation and climate;
5.5. The ~40,000- and ~100,000-year climate cycles.
|
| Topic 6. Suborbital climate variability |
6.1. Patterns and mechanisms of sub-orbital climate variability;
6.2. Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events;
6.3. Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, and solar activity. |
| Topic 7. Solid Earth, ocean, and atmospheric CO2 variations |
7.1. Reservoirs of carbon in the Earth's system;
7.2. Solid Earth and the long-term carbon cycle;
7.3. Weathering and atmospheric CO2;
7.4. Ocean carbonate chemistry and the carbonate compensation feedback;
7.5. The role of the ocean in glacial-interglacial variations in atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
|
| Laboratory practicals |
Quantitative exercises and/or practical, analytical examples related with the subjects developed during the course.
The course involves 3 laboratory practicals: Laboratory practical 1 (foraminiferal proxies); Laboratory practical 2 (climate sensitivity); Laboratory practical 3 (magnetism applied to palaeoclimatology).
|
| Seminars |
The course includes 3 seminars that will deepen some of the main topics of the course (patterns of palaeoclimate change, palaeoclimate proxies, ocean-atmosphere interactions, palaeoclimate variability). |
