Recent climatic variations, their causes and neogene perspectives

Book · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6159047

Miller, M M

Secular trends during the Little Ice Age and the Holocene suggest that if natural climatic controls prevail, both minor and major Ice Ages could be in the offing, the lesser one within a few centuries and a greater one in upwards of 10,000 years. Over the past 15 years, low elevation glaciers have experienced accelerated down wastage and retreat, paralleled by notable increase in ice volume in some of the higher elevation cirques. Teleconnectional similarities with modern glacier behavior in Scandinavia, the southern Andes and New Zealand support global significance of the record. Comparative data on polar sea ice changes in historic time also reflect the general regime trends of terrestrial glacier ice. At time, stage and age intervals, British Columbia-Yukon-Alaska glacial stratigraphy and ocean core evidence have suggested longer-term intervals of glacial climate at approximately 10, 20 40-50, 100 and possible as much as 500 thousand years. In the absence of a plausible explanation of the last 10-15 years of warming either from the solar cycle or from air-sea interactions, the concern is that a global carbon dioxide control on the general circulation may have begun during the 1960s. Systematic glacier/climate studies and further critical tests of the sun-weather interaction should be continued throughout the remaining years of this century.

• OSTI ID: 6159047
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CARBON DIOXIDE
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
CLIMATES
VARIATIONS
AIR-WATER INTERACTIONS
DRILL CORES
GLACIERS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
ICE
SEAS
STRATIGRAPHY
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
GEOLOGY
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SURFACE WATERS
500200* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)