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Arizona Paleo-Climate and a little bit of the future…

Explore the geological history of Arizona, from the aftermath of the Chixiclub impact to the future of global warming and beyond. Discover fascinating facts and key events that shaped Arizona's climate over millions of years.

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Arizona Paleo-Climate and a little bit of the future…

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  1. Arizona Paleo-Climateand a little bit of the future… Arizona Geography GCU 221

  2. Game Plan 1. 65 Ma: After the fallout of Chixiclub impact 2. 59 to 50 Ma: Eocene Hot period 3. 50 Ma to ~5 Ma: Mid-Cenozoic cooling 4. ~5 Ma to 12,000 Ka: Ice Age 5. 12,000 to present: Holocene flat interglacial 6. Future: Global Warming 7. Far Future: Global Ice Box 8. Far Far Future: Hot and dead world 9. Far Far Far Future: Oceanless world consumed by the sun

  3. 1. After Chixiclub • 65.5 million years ago • Dinosaurs go extinct, mammals take over • 200 km wide impact crater

  4. Interesting facts • The asteroid was about 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide. In the UK, the city of Bristol, the Isle of Wight and Jersey are all about that size. • The asteroid was about 10,000 times more massive than the total mass of the human world population. • At impact, the asteroid is estimated to have been traveling at 20 kilometers per second (44,640 miles per hour), roughly 10 times the speed of a rifle bullet. • The impact released about a billion times more energy than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and a million times larger than the largest nuclear bomb ever tested. • The initial impact crater was about 100 kilometers (60 miles) wide and 30 kilometers (18 miles) deep. After the dust cleared, the crater was about 180 kilometers (110 miles) wide and 2 kilometers (1 mile) deep. • Impacts of this size on Earth are thought to happen on average about once every hundred million years. • The impact released earthquakes on the order of magnitude 11. That's more than 100 times more powerful than the magnitude 8.8 Chilean earthquake on Feb. 27, 2010.

  5. Global cooling • Global fires • Particles from the impact

  6. 2. Eocene Hot Period (59 to 50 Ma) • Deccan traps eruption emits a large amount of CO2, a powerful greenhouse gas. • The lava covered a area the size of modern India.

  7. Eocene Hot Period Except this isn’t the Bahamas, this is the north pole…

  8. Eocene facts • Temps increased 5 to 7 degrees Celsius.

  9. The Eocene World

  10. The Eocene World

  11. 3. Mid-Cenozoic Cooling • Plants store CO2 in Lignin • Mountain Building (Andes and Himalaya) • Antarctica separates from Australia • North America meets South America

  12. Plant - Lignin Starting forming 300 million years Ago. A very complicated biological molecule that helps plants strengthen their cell walls, it is also very difficult to be broken down by decomposers and as such stores CO2.

  13. Azolla Plant Spike in the Azolla plant at the poles, which pulls down 6 tons of CO2 per year during the Eocene Hot Period.

  14. Mountain Building • 50 million years ago, India slams into Asia • At the same time, the Nazca Plate slows down as it dives under South America Andes Himalayas

  15. Mountain Building removes CO2 • New fresh rock pushed to the surface… • The rocks weather and erode, and then new rock replaces them… • More CO2 in the atmosphere, more carbonic acid, more weathering of silicate minerals • Dissolved carbonate get dumped in the ocean and stores the CO2, usually as limestone.

  16. North America meets South America Happened between 15 and 3 millions years ago shutdowns oceanic circulation

  17. Antarctica and Australia Happened between 30 millions years ago Circum-Antarctic circulation

  18. 4. Ice Age Begins… ~3 Ma to present • All the factors (plants, mountain building, and plate locations) that pulled all the CO2 out of the atmosphere, gives us the Ice Age.

  19. Ice Age World

  20. Ice Age Big cycles between relatively short warm periods and much longer cold periods North and south mountains in North America prevent air ciculation and the shifts in temperature more extreme than any where on Earth Ice Age glaciers on North America were bigger than Antarctica

  21. 5. Holocene flat interglacial The constant temperature over the Holocene allowed civilization to develop

  22. 6. Our near future… • Are CO2 levels going up? • Is temperature going up? • What happens when it reaches 450? How about 1125 (Eocene)? http://www.sciencemag.org/content/313/5795/1928.full

  23. 7. Far Future The CO2 we added gets sucked away by weathering and plants… enter the ice age again, but colder.

  24. 8. Far Far Future 300 Ma CO2 eventually goes away and the sun gets hotter Average temperature 135 degrees

  25. 9. Far Far Far Future 8 Ga We loose our ocean and get consumed by the sun… bummer.

  26. Things to know: 1. 65 Ma: After the fallout of Chixiclub impact 2. 59 to 50 Ma: Eocene Hot period 3. 50 Ma to ~5 Ma: Mid-Cenozoic cooling 4. ~5 Ma to 12,000 Ka: Ice Age 5. 12,000 to present: Holocene flat interglacial 6. Future: Global Warming 7. Far Future: Global Ice Box 8. Far Far Future: Hot and dead world 9. Far FarFar Future: Oceanless world consumed by the sun Help: Ask Dr. Douglass

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