Geology 210  -  Class Preparation Questions

Cenozoic Climate Change

What is the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide and earth climate?

How are tectonism, mineral weathering, metamorphism, volcanism, and levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide related?

What three evolutionary innovations have changed the relationships between weathering and carbon dioxide flux between the atmosphere and the lithosphere?

How do ocean currents influence global climate?  How have ocean current patterns changed through Cenozoic time?

Describe the variables in the earth-sun system that control seasonal distribution of solar energy at difference latitudes.

How do the oxygen stable isotope ratios in marine carbonate sediment track the waxing and waning of continental glaciers and thus the warming and cooling of the earth at the middle and high latitudes?