This topic contains a solution. Click here to go to the answer

Author Question: Describe the Younger Dryas period, the evidence for its existence, and the hypothesis for its ... (Read 87 times)

tfester

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 534
Describe the Younger Dryas period, the evidence for its existence, and the hypothesis for its origin.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Why does temperature data collected in more recent times have less uncertainty than for the past?
 
  What will be an ideal response?



Related Topics

Need homework help now?

Ask unlimited questions for free

Ask a Question
Marked as best answer by a Subject Expert

shaquita

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 324
Answer to Question 1

The Younger Dryas is a 1300-year-long cold snap that started about 13,000 years ago and interrupted the overall trend of warming after the peak of the last ice age. Evidence for the Younger Dryas includes changes in temperature-sensitive vegetation in successive layers of sediment, proxy measurements of ocean temperature, and proxy measurements of air temperature over Greenland. The most widely held hypothesis for the Younger Dryas points to a period without conveyor-belt-style ocean circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean, which decreased the efficiency of ocean currents to distribute heat away from the equator to higher latitudes. The conveyor-belt circulation may have temporarily ceased when large volumes of freshwater from the melting of ice-age glaciers decreased the salinity of surface water in the North Atlantic so that the sinking part of the conveyor belt could not exist.

Answer to Question 2

As techniques for measuring temperature become more standardized and instruments become more reliable, there is less variability in temperature measurements that can be attributed to the measurement itself, meaning that there is greater certainty that the measured value represents actual temperature. Also, when averaging temperature over a region, there is greater uncertainty in earlier values than more recent ones simply because there are many more measurement locations now (covering roughly 80 of Earth's surface) than previously (representing only about half of Earth's surface in the 19th century).





 

Did you know?

Most childhood vaccines are 90–99% effective in preventing disease. Side effects are rarely serious.

Did you know?

Looking at the sun may not only cause headache and distort your vision temporarily, but it can also cause permanent eye damage. Any exposure to sunlight adds to the cumulative effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation on your eyes. UV exposure has been linked to eye disorders such as macular degeneration, solar retinitis, and corneal dystrophies.

Did you know?

The human body produces and destroys 15 million blood cells every second.

Did you know?

Once thought to have neurofibromatosis, Joseph Merrick (also known as "the elephant man") is now, in retrospect, thought by clinical experts to have had Proteus syndrome. This endocrine disease causes continued and abnormal growth of the bones, muscles, skin, and so on and can become completely debilitating with severe deformities occurring anywhere on the body.

Did you know?

The newest statin drug, rosuvastatin, has been called a superstatin because it appears to reduce LDL cholesterol to a greater degree than the other approved statin drugs.

For a complete list of videos, visit our video library