… and for the last glacial maximum, cold and windy with some warm spells: Insights into past climate from loess
The planet faces a major reorganisation of the climate system as a result of the increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases induced by human activity. Understanding mechanisms and tipping points of the system is fundamentally important for predicting responses to that perturbation.
The last major natural reorganisation of the climate system, which occurred during the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present interglacial, may be key in understanding our future. Recent research posits the Southern Hemisphere westerlies as a major driver of global climate system reorganisation. This talks reviews traditional and novel hypotheses on controls on glacial-interglacial climates, and presents new paleoclimate information from loess in North Canterbury that sheds light on the debate.
Speaker bio
Peter Almond is a soil scientist and academic at Lincoln University where he researches pedology (the character and distribution of different soils in the landscape), geomorphology (the science of landforms), and past climate. He has a special interest in loess as both an important material in which soils form, and for the record of past environment and climate it stores.
This event is being organised by the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, for more information please contact r.fagg@xtra.co.nz
Free admission, all welcome.