Palaeoclimatology

Annual log contents – click on year to download PDF

2000 Snowball Earth; Milankovich forcing; millennial climate change; methane hydrate; clathrate ‘bomb’; silica micronutrient; Palaeocene-Eocene warming; climate cycles; Vostok ice core; iron and phytoplankton blooms.

2001 End-Archaean mantle overturn; Great Oxygenation Event; sulfur isotopes; onset North Atlantic Deep Water; thermohaline circulation; environmental change Africa; Phanerozoic CO₂ levels, Snowball Earth and methane; plant respiration and CO₂; animals and climate; photosynthesis and carbonate biofilms; strontium isotopes; continental weathering; stalactite records; Holocene climate.

2002 Snowball Earth; thermohaline circulation; Cretaceous hothouse; glacial outburst floods; Hadean climate; future climate; Archaean carbon cycle; sea level and climate; Palaeocene-Eocene warming; Alaskan methane burst; African ice core; Triassic weathering; gas hydrates.

2003 Antarctic ice cap initiation; Tibetan uplift; Proterozoic warming by methane; Eocene El Niño; North-South teleconnection; Bølling-Allerød; glacial refugia; gas hydrate ‘gun’; Red Sea sea-level record; climate triggers reviewed; iron isotopes; ocean evolution; high- and low-latitude climate change; teleconnections; Phanerozoic cosmic-ray flux and climate variation; Precambrian CO₂ levels; geochemistry and Snowball conditions; continental weathering.

2004 Methane releases; continental margin collapse; super-eruptions; Toba; continental weathering; osmium isotopes; end-Palaeocene warming; Snowball Earth; wildfires and oxygen; Vostok ice core; early Earth’s climate; tufa and rainfall records; last interglacial (Eemian); Rodinia breakup; detrital zircon dating; Cretaceous Arctic climate.

2005 Snowball Earth; Northern Hemisphere glacial initiation; early agriculture and Holocene warming; glacial cycles; Milankovich forcing; ocean circulation; metamorphism of coal; Younger Dryas; ocean acidification; greenhouse-icehouse transition; end-Permian extinction; methane release; Snowball photosynthesis; EPICA Dome C ice core.

2006 Early civilisation collapse; Snowball Earth; Younger Dryas; meltwater flood; Pliocene climate; EPICA Dome C ice core; Precambrian ocean temperature; teleconnections.

2007 Mummified penguins; early Greenland icecap; Palaeocene-Eocene warming; Younger Dryas; extraterrestrial impact; Neoproterozoic glacial cycles.

2008 ‘Slushball’ Earth; organic carbon burial; Cretaceous glaciation; glacial outburst flood; Younger Dryas; EPICA Dome C ice core; Saharan ecosystem evolution; East African Pleistocene climate change; bat guano isotope record.

2009 Carbon sequestration; Snowball Earth; magnetic field and rainfall; Younger Dryas; Eocene-Oligocene climate change; carbon capture and storage; climate modelling; icecap changes; GRACE gravity data; marine boron isotopes; 8.2 ka cooling event.

2010 post-Miocene climate change; Archaean climate; climate and geomagnetic field reversals; sea level changes; Younger Dryas; glacial outburst flood; Snowball Earth; glacial terminations; continental weathering; Holocene sea-level record; teleconnections.

2011 Cambrian climate; Atlantic thermohaline circulation; cap carbonates; dust records.

2012 Precambrian carbon cycle; Great Oxidation Event; galactic controls over climate; dust records.

2013 Volcanic aerosols; Permian climate; Lake El’gygytgyn climate record; Milankovich forcing; earliest glacial epochs; Devonian forest fires.

2014 Younger Dryas; Gulf Stream shutdown; carbon sequestration and ants.

2015 Ancient vegetation canopies; sea-floor spreading and glacial cycles; Snowball Earth; coral and global warming; core-climate link; Paris Agreement.

2016 Global warming staves off glaciation; Tibetan ice core; Arctic Ocean ice shelves; atmosphere samples from Neoproterozoic halite; carbon capture and storage; end-Palaeocene impact.

2017 Phanerozoic atmospheric CO₂ record; glacial refugia; Milankovich forcing; gas hydrates; K-T boundary wildfires; volcanism and sea level; K-T boundary winter.

2018 Snowball Earth followed by sea level rise; Late Palaeozoic glacial landforms in Chad; tectonics and Snowball Earth; Great Barrier Reef records Last Glacial Maximum; Greenland impact and Younger Dryas.

2019 100 ka glacial cycles after the mid-Pleistocene; Tectonics and glacial epochs; Younger Dryas impact theory; soluble iron and climate; Ediacaran glaciated surface; Ordovician glaciation and impacts; Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum; Younger Dryas causal mechanisms; 400ka melting of Greenland ice sheet; climatic tipping points and sudden change; surviving Snowball Earth.

2020 Influence of dissolved iron on global climate, evidence from ice cores. Interglacial climate instabilities, evidence for freshwater floods. Climate and sea-level change during the Cenozoic. Alaska’s Okmok volcano eruption in 43 BCE, effects on end of Roman Republic, death of Julius Caesar, famine. Rock weathering, carbon sequestration. Starting Snowball Earth conditions. The Younger Dryas and volcanic eruptions. Centenary of the Milanković Theory. Anthropocene, Event rather than Epoch. Earth’s albedo being reduced by climate change – dimming Earth.

2021 Regulation of atmospheric oxygen by flowering plants during Mesozoic Era. Possible revision of Holocene climate record and implications for anthropogenic global warming. Arctic Ocean filled with fresh water three time when outlets blocked by ice shelves since 150 ka. Northern Polar Regions warmer around 550 ka ago than they are now. Minor polar wander due to climate change in last few decades. End of Carboniferous ‘icehouse world’, association with marine anoxia. Climate changes during Mesozoic and Cenozoic related to variations in global sea-floor spreading and CO₂ emissions. New ideas about Pleistocene climate cycles from variations in ice-rafted debris. Chaotic climate after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction as a result of geochemical reaction. Igneous intrusions in large igneous province implicated in end-Triassic mass extinction. Earth’s ability to reflect incoming solar radiation has decreased in recent decades, based on measurements of ‘earthshine’ from Moon’s surface. Repeated impacts reduced oxygen build-up during Archaean. Mid-Pleistocene transition from 41 ka to 100 ka glacial cycles