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Tales of Mass Destruction

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Part of the book series: Astronomers' Universe ((ASTRONOM))

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Abstract

This chapter illustrates the fluid nature of planetary weather and climate. Climate is a dynamic creature that changes with the activity of the planet’s central star, the Sun, and with other dynamic forces that operate on and within planets. The climate of the Earth has repeatedly changed dramatically over the eons since it has formed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This is an absolute minimum with the likely volume exceeding three million cubic kilometers, or more than twice the Deccan Traps in India.

  2. 2.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2013/05/26/meteorologist-joe-bastardi-blaming-turbulent-weather-on-global-warming-is-extreme-nonsense/2/

  3. 3.

    Source: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/SN05755/flood-defence-spending-in-england

  4. 4.

    While going to press, Som has published another research article in the journal Science that suggests that the density of the atmosphere was actually a lot lower than it is now.

  5. 5.

    Finding any definitive value for the height of tides seems to be more trouble than it’s worth! Values range from 1 to several tens of meters with few references giving anything conclusive. Take 30 m as speculative…

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Stevenson, D.S. (2016). Tales of Mass Destruction. In: The Exo-Weather Report. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25679-5_3

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