Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments

2009 Edition
| Editors: Vivien Gornitz

History of Paleoclimatology

  • Rhodes W. Fairbridge
Reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4411-3_104
How to cite

The roots of paleoclimatology

This narrative will treat sequentially (i) the discovery phase of the evidence (which still continues to this day) and (ii) the causative and experimental phase. Short biographies of major paleoclimatologists are presented in a companion piece.

Earliest observations

The elemental concept of climate change probably evolved in documentary form in ancient Egypt (Nile Valley), Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and in China, where exceptional river floods or extended droughts were experienced. Decadal to century-long variations in the amplitudes of the Nile floods were more or less paralleled by the fortunes of successive dynasties. Times of drought and famine were socially more serious than episodic experiences of excessive (summer) floods. Early chapters of the Judeo-Christian Bible, notably Genesis, recounted the tale of the forty-day rain, resulting in the “flood of Noah,” and the subsequent recovery. Other oriental cultures contained comparable traditional...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Bibliography

  1. Ahlmann, H.W., 1938. Land of Ice and Fire. London: Kegan Paul, 271p.Google Scholar
  2. Albritton, C.C. Jr., 1975. Philosophy of Geohistory. (Benchmark Papers in Geology, vol. 13). Stroudsburg: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, 386pp.Google Scholar
  3. Adhémar, J., 1842. “Les Révolutions de la mer. Déluges périodiques.” Paris.Google Scholar
  4. Alvarez, W., 1986. Toward a theory of impact crises. EOS, 67, 649, 658.Google Scholar
  5. Berger, A., 1995. Modelling the astronomical theory of paleoclimates. In Finkl, C.W. (ed.), Cycles, J. Coast. Res., 17, pp. 355–362 (special issue).Google Scholar
  6. Berger, A., Imbrie, J., Hays, J., Kukla, G., and Saltzman, B. (eds.), 1984. Milankovitch and Climate: Understanding the Response to Astronomical Forcing. Dordrecht: Reidel, 895pp.Google Scholar
  7. Berger, A., and Loutre, M.F., 1991. Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years. Quaternary Sci. Rev., 10, 297–317.Google Scholar
  8. Berger, A., and Loutre, M.F., 1992. Astronomical solutions for paleoclimate studies over the last 3 million years. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 111, 369–382.Google Scholar
  9. Berger, A., Loutre, M.F., and Laskar, J., 1992. Stability of the astronomical frequencies over the Earth’s history for paleoclimatic studies. Science, 255, 560–566.Google Scholar
  10. Bond, G., Kromer, B., Beer, J., Muscheler, R., Evans, M.N., Showers, W., Hoffmann, S., Lotti-Bond, R., Hadjas, I., and Bonani, G., 2001. Persistent solar influence on North Atlantic climate during the Holocene. Science, 294, 2130–2136.Google Scholar
  11. Bourgeois, J. et al., 1985. A tsunami deposit at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in Texas. Science, 241, 567–570.Google Scholar
  12. Bradley, R.S., 1985. Quaternary paleoclimatology: Methods of Paleoclimatic Reconstruction. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
  13. Broecker, W.S., 1991. The great ocean conveyor. Oceanography, 4, 79–89.Google Scholar
  14. Brooks, E.P., 1926/1949. Climate Through the Ages. London: Ernest Bonn. 395pp.Google Scholar
  15. Bryson, R.R., 1997. Proxy indications of Holocene winter rains in southwest Asia compared with simulated rainfall. In Dalfes, H.N., Kukla, G., and Weiss, H. (eds.), Third Millennium BC Climate Change and Old World Collapse. NATO ASI Series, vol. 149, Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer, p. 465.Google Scholar
  16. Chamberlin, T.C., 1897. A group of hypotheses bearing on climate change. J. Geol., 5, 653–683.Google Scholar
  17. Croll, J., 1875/1885. Climate and Time, in their Geological Relations; a theory of secular changes of the Earth’s Climate. (2nd ed.) London and New York: Appleton, 577pp.Google Scholar
  18. Crowell, J.C., 1999. Re-Mesozoic ice ages. Geol. Soc. Am. Mem., 192, 106pp.Google Scholar
  19. Currie, R.G., 1995. Variance contribution of Mn and Sc signals to Nile River data over a 30–8 year bandwidth. J. Coast. Res., 17, 29–38Google Scholar
  20. Currie, R.G., and Fairbridge, R.W., 1985. Periodic 18.6-year and cyclic 11-year induced drought and flood in Northeastern China and some global implications. Quaternary Sci. Rev., 4, 109–134.Google Scholar
  21. Dalfes, H.N., Kukla, G., and Weiss, H. (eds), 1997. Third Millennium BC Climate Change and Old World Collapse, NATO ASI Series., vol. 149, Berlin and Heidelberg: SpringerGoogle Scholar
  22. Dietz, R.S., 1961. Continent and ocean basin evolution by spreading of the sea-floor. Nature, 190, 854–857.Google Scholar
  23. Dietz, R.S., 1977. Plate tectonics: a revolution in geology and geophysics. Tectonophysics, 38, 1–6.Google Scholar
  24. Dubois, E., 1893. Die Klimate der geologischen Vergangenheit und ihre Beziehungen zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Sonne. Leipzig.Google Scholar
  25. Du Toit, A.L. 1937. Our Wandering Continents. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 366pp.Google Scholar
  26. Ekholm, N., and Arrhenius, S.A., 1898. Über den Einfkuss des Mondes auf die Polarlichter und Gewitter. Kongl. Svenska Vetenskaps Akademiens Handlingar, 31(2), 77–156.Google Scholar
  27. Eldredge, N., and Gould, S.J., 1972. Punctuated equilibria: An alternative to phyletic gradualism. In Schopf, T.J.M. (eds.), Models of Paleogeology. San Francisco: Freeman Cooper, pp. 82–115.Google Scholar
  28. El Fandy, M.G., et al., 1994. Time series models adaptable for forecasting Nile floods and Ethiopian rainfalls. Bull. Am.. Met. Soc., 75(1), 83–94.Google Scholar
  29. Emiliani, C., 1966. Isotope paleotemperatures. Science, 154, 851–857.Google Scholar
  30. Emiliani, C., 1992. Planet Earth. Cambridge, UK: University Press, 718pp.Google Scholar
  31. EPICA, 2004. Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core (Benchmark Papers in Geology, vol.13). Nature, 429, 623–628.Google Scholar
  32. Erhart, H. (1956). La Genese des Sols—Esquisse d’une Théorie Géologique: Biostasie et Rhexistasie”, Paris: Masson. 90pp.Google Scholar
  33. Ewing, M., and Donn, W.L., 1956. A theory of ice ages. Science, 123, 1061–1066.Google Scholar
  34. Ewing, M., and Donn, W.L., 1958. A theory of ice ages, II. The theory that certain local conditions caused Pleistocene glaciations discussed further. Science, 127, 1159–1162.Google Scholar
  35. Fairbridge, R.W., 1961. Eustatic changes in sea level In Ahrens, L.H. et al., (eds), Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. Pergamon Press, vol. 4, London: pp. 99–185.Google Scholar
  36. Fairbridge, R.W., 1962. New radiocarbon dates of Nile sediments. Nature, 196, 108–110.Google Scholar
  37. Fairbridge, R.W. 1964. The importance of limestone and its Ca/Mg content to paleoclimatology. In Nairn, A.E.M. (ed.), Problems in Paleoclimatology. New York: Wiley, pp. 431–530.Google Scholar
  38. Fairbridge, R.W. (ed.), 1966. The Encyclopedia of Oceanography. New York: Reinhold, 1021pp.Google Scholar
  39. Fairbridge, R.W. (ed.), 1967. The Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences and Astrogeology. New York: Reinhold, 1200pp.Google Scholar
  40. Fairbridge, R.W. (ed.), 1968. The Encyclopedia of Geomorphology. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1295pp.Google Scholar
  41. Fairbridge, R.W., 1971. Upper Ordovician glaciation in Northwest Africa? Geol. Soc. Am. bull., 82, 269–274.Google Scholar
  42. Fairbridge, R.W., 1973. Glaciation and plate migration. In Tarling, D.H., and Runcorn, K. (eds.), Implications of Continental Drift to the Earth Sciences. London: Academic Press, vol. 1, pp. 503–515.Google Scholar
  43. Fairbridge, R.W., (ed.), 1975. The Encyclopedia of World Regional Geology, part 1: Western Hemisphere. Stroudsburg, Dowden: Hutchinson & Ross, 704pp.Google Scholar
  44. Fairbridge, R.W., 1977. Rates of sea ice erosion of Quaternary littoral platforms. Studia Geol. Polonica, 52, 135–141.Google Scholar
  45. Fairbridge, R.W., 1982. The fracturing of Gondwanaland. In Scrutten, R.A., and Talwani, M. (eds.), The Ocean Floor. Chichester, NY: Wiley, pp. 229–235.Google Scholar
  46. Fairbridge, R.W., 1990. Solar and lunar cycles embedded in the El Niño periodicities. Cycles, 41, 66–72.Google Scholar
  47. Fairbridge, R.W., and Finkl, C.W., Jr., 1980. Cratonic erosional unconformities and peneplains. J. Geol., 88, 69–86.Google Scholar
  48. Fairbridge, R.W., and Hillaire-Marcel, C., 1977. An 8,000 year paleoclimatic record of the 45-yr “Double-Hale” solar cycle. Nature, 268, 413–416.Google Scholar
  49. Fairbridge, R.W., and Sanders, J.E., 1987. The Sun’s orbit, A.D. 750–2050: Basis for new perspectives on planetary dynamics and Earth-Moon linkage. In Rampino, M.R., Sanders, J.E., Newman, W.S., and Königsson, L.K. (eds.), Climate: History, Periodicity, and Predictability. New York: van Nostrand Reinhold, pp. 446–471.Google Scholar
  50. Fairbridge, R.W., and Teichert, C., 1948. The Low Isles of the Great Barrier Reef: A new analysis. Geogr. J., 111, 67–88.Google Scholar
  51. Fletcher, C.H. III, et al., 1993. Emergence of the Varanger Peninsula, Arctic Norway, and climate changes since deglaciation. The Holocene, 3(2), 116–127.Google Scholar
  52. Flint, R.F., 1971. Glacial and Quaternary Geology. New York: Wiley, 892pp.Google Scholar
  53. Flohn, H., and Fantechi, R. (eds.), 1984. The climate of Europe: Past, present, and future. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Reidel Publishing Co.Google Scholar
  54. Frakes, L.A., 1979. Climates Throughout Geologic Time. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 379pp.Google Scholar
  55. Gohau, G., 1990. A History of Geology. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 259pp.Google Scholar
  56. Grove, J.M., 1988. The Little Ice Age. London: Methuen, 498pp.Google Scholar
  57. Hassan, F.A., 1981. Historical Nile floods and their implications for climate change. Science, 212, 1142–1144.Google Scholar
  58. Heer, O., 1865, transl. 1876. The Primeval World of Switzerland, 2 vol., London.Google Scholar
  59. Herschy, R.W. and Fairbridge, R.W., (eds.), 1998. Encyclopedia of Hydrology and Water Resources. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 803pp.Google Scholar
  60. Hoyle, F., and Littleton, R.A., 1919. The effect of interstellar matter on climatic variation. Proceedingsof the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 35, 405–418.Google Scholar
  61. Huntington, E., and Visher, S.S., 1922. Climatic Changes, Their Nature and Causes. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 329pp.Google Scholar
  62. Imbrie, J., and Imbrie, K.P. (1979/1986). Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 224pp.Google Scholar
  63. Isacks, B.L., Oliver, J., and Sykes, L.R., 1968. Seismology and the new global tectonics. J. Geophys. Res., 73, 5855–5899.Google Scholar
  64. Jelbring, H., 1998. Wind controlled climate. Ph.D. Thesis, Akademitryk AB, Sweden: Stockholm University, 111pp.Google Scholar
  65. Kennett, J.P., 1982. Marine Geology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
  66. Kerner-Marilaun, F., 1930. “Paläoklimatologie.” Berlin: Gebr. Borntraeger.Google Scholar
  67. Kerr, R.A., 2006. A worrying trend of less ice, higher seas. Science, 311, 1698–1701.Google Scholar
  68. Kukla, G.J., 1972. Insolation and glacials. Boreas, 1, 63–96.Google Scholar
  69. Lamb, H.H., 1977. Climate History and the Future. London: Methuen (and Princeton University Press), 835pp.Google Scholar
  70. Lamb, H.H., and Woodroffe, A., 1970. Atmospheric circulation during the last Ice Age. Quaternary Res., 1, 29–58.Google Scholar
  71. Lewis, R.S., and Anders, E., 1985. Cretaceous extinctions: Evidence for wildfires and search for meteoritic material. Science, 230, 167–170.Google Scholar
  72. Lyell, C. (1830–1833). Principles of Geology. London: John Murray, 3 vols. [facsimile reprint, New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1969, introduction by M.J.S. Rudwick].Google Scholar
  73. Maclaren, C., 1842. The glacial theory of Professor Agassiz of Neuchatel. Am. J. Sci., 42, 346–365.Google Scholar
  74. Maley, J., 1997. Middle to late Holocene changes in tropical Africa and other continents: Paleomonsoon and sea surface temperature variations. In Dalfes, H.N., Kukla, G., and Weiss, H. (eds.), Third Millenium BC Climate Change and Old World Collapses. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 611–640.Google Scholar
  75. Marvin, U.B., 1973. Continental Drift, the Evolution of a Concept.Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institute press, 205pp.Google Scholar
  76. McGovern, T.H., 2000. The Demise of Norse Greenland. In Fitzhugh, W.W., and Ward, E.I. (eds.), Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press and National Museum of Natural History, pp. 327–393.Google Scholar
  77. Milankovitch, M., 1941. Kanon der erdbestrahlung und seine Anwendung auf das Eiszeitenproblem. Roy. Serb. Acad., Special Publication 133, 633pp. (Engl. Transl. 1969 as “Canon of Insolation and the Ice-Age Problem”, by Israel Progr. Sci. Transl., U.S. Dept. Commerce, Washington, 484pp.)Google Scholar
  78. Moberg, A., 1995. Multi-taper spectral analysis of the Stockholm air temperature record: A significant 22.8yr cyclic pulse observed. J. Coast. Res., 17, 39–44Google Scholar
  79. Mörner, N.A., 1984. Low sea levels, droughts, and mammalian extinctions. In Berggren, W.A., and Van Couvering, J.A. (eds.), Catastrophes and Earth History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 387–394.Google Scholar
  80. Nansen, F., 1922. The strandflat and isostasy. Vitenskapsselskapets skrifter, I matematisk-Naturevitenskapelig Klasse 1921, No. 11, Kristiana I, Kommission hos Jacob Dybwad.Google Scholar
  81. Nicholson, S., and Flohn, H., 1980. African environmental and climatic changes and the general circulation in late Pleistocene and Holocene. Climatic change, 27, 20–34.Google Scholar
  82. Noelke, F., 1908. “Das Problem der Entwicklungsgeschichte unseres Planetensystems.” Berlin.Google Scholar
  83. Officer, C., and Page, J., 1996. The Great Dinosaur Extinction Controversy. Reading, MA: Addison & Wesley, 209pp.Google Scholar
  84. Oliver, J.E., and Fairbridge, R.W., 1987. The Encyclopedia of Climatology. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 986pp.Google Scholar
  85. Petit, J.R. et al., 1999. Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature, 399, 429–436.Google Scholar
  86. Peixoto, J.P., and Oort, A.H. (1992). Physics of Climate. New York: American Institute of Physics, 512pp.Google Scholar
  87. Pettersson, O., 1912. The connection between hydrographical and meteorological phenomena., Quarterly J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 38, 173–191.Google Scholar
  88. Pettersson, O., 1930. The tidal force: Geogr. Annaler, 12, 261–322.Google Scholar
  89. Pitman, W.C., 1978. Relationship between eustasy and stratigraphic sequences of passive margins. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 89, 1389–1403.Google Scholar
  90. Pitman, W.C. III, and Heirtzler, J.R., 1966. Magnetic anomalies over the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge. Science, 154, 1164–71.Google Scholar
  91. Poag, C.W., 1997. The Chesapeake Bay bolide impact: A convulsive event in Atlantic Coastal Plain Evolution. Sediment. Geol., 108, 45–90.Google Scholar
  92. Rampino, M.R. 1998. The galactic theory of mass extinctions: An update. Celestial Mech. Dyn. Astron. 69, 49–58.Google Scholar
  93. Rampino, M.R., and Haggerty, B.M., 1996. “The ‘Shiva Hypothesis’: Impacts, Mass Extinctions and the Galaxy.” Earth, Moon, and Planets, 72, 441–460.Google Scholar
  94. Raymo, M.E., 1994. The initiation of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci., 22, 353–383.Google Scholar
  95. Raymo, M.E., and Ruddiman, W.F., 1992. Tectonic forcing of late Cenozoic climate. Nature, 359, 117–122.Google Scholar
  96. Rind, D., 2002. The sun’s role in climate variations. Science, 296, 673–677.Google Scholar
  97. Rognon, P., and Williams, M.A.J., 1977. Late Quaternary climatic changes in Australia and North Africa: a preliminary interpretation. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 21, 285–327.Google Scholar
  98. Ruddiman, W.F., 2005. Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 272pp.Google Scholar
  99. Ryan, W.B.F., and Pitman, W.C., 1999. Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed History. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 320pp.Google Scholar
  100. Sayles, R.W., 1931. Bermuda during the Ice Age. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 66, 382–467.Google Scholar
  101. Schove, D.J., 1983. Sunspot Cycles (Benchmark Papers in Geology, vol. 68). Stroudsburg: Hutchinson Ross Publ. Co., 392pp.Google Scholar
  102. Schramm, M., 1963. Aristotelianism: Basis and Obstacle to Scientific Progress in the Middle Ages. History of Science, 2, 91–113.Google Scholar
  103. Schwarzbach, M., 1974. Das Klimate der Vorzeit, 3rd ed. Stuttgart: F. Enke Verlag, (English edition, 1963). New York: Van Nostrand.Google Scholar
  104. Shindell, D.T., Schmidt, G.A., Mann, M.E., Rind, D., and Waple, A., 2001. Solar forcing of regional climate change during the Maunder Minimum. Science 294, 2149–2152.Google Scholar
  105. Shirley, J.H., and Fairbridge, R.W. (eds.), 1997. Encyclopedia of Planetary Sciences, London: Chapman & Hall, 990pp.Google Scholar
  106. Siscoe, G.L., 1980. Evidence in the auroral record for secular solar variability. Rev. Geophys. Space Phys., 18, 647–658.Google Scholar
  107. Sigurdsson, H., Houghton, B.F., McNutt, S.R., Rymer, H., and Stix, J. (eds.), 2000. Encyclopedia of Volcanoes. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1417pp.Google Scholar
  108. Stommel, H., 1958. The Gulf Stream. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 202pp.Google Scholar
  109. Street, F.A., and Grove, A.T., 1976. Environmental and climatic implications of late Quaternary lake-level fluctuations in Africa. Nature, 281, 380–385.Google Scholar
  110. Street, F.A., and Grove, A.T., 1979. Global maps of lake-level fluctuations since 30,000 years BP. Quaternary Res., 12, 83–118.Google Scholar
  111. Stuiver, M., and Braziunas, T.F., 1989. Atmospheric 14C and century-scale solar oscillations. Nature, 388, 405–408.Google Scholar
  112. Suess, E., 1885–1909. Das Antlitz der Erde, Vienna: F. Tempsky. (Engl. Transl. “The Face of the Earth”. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1904–1924). 5 vols.Google Scholar
  113. Valentine, J.W., and Moores, E.M., 1970. Plate-tectonic regulation of faunal diversity and sea level: A model. Nature, 228, 659–669. (reprinted in Shea, 1985, 281–283).Google Scholar
  114. Visher, G.S., 1986. A history of geological thought. Earth Sciences History, 5/2, 137–143.Google Scholar
  115. Von Richthofen, F., (1877–1885). China: Ergebnisse eigener Reisen und darauf gegründeter Studien. Berlin, 4 vols.Google Scholar
  116. Wegener, A., 1929. Die Enstehung der Continente und Ozeane. F. Vieweg & Son, Braunschweig, 4th ed. (trans. by J. Binram as “The Origin of Continents and Oceans”, 1966). New York: Dover Publications, 346pp.Google Scholar
  117. Wendorf, F., and Schild, R., 1976. Prehistory of the Nile Valley. New York: Academic Press, 404pp.Google Scholar
  118. Williams, M.A.J., and Faure, H. (ed.), 1980. The Sahara and the Nile. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, 607pp.Google Scholar
  119. Wood, F.J., 2001. Tidal dynamics, 3rd ed. West Palm Beach: Coastal Education and Research Foundation, 2 vols.Google Scholar
  120. Zenkovitch, A., 1966. Fairbridge, R.W., (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Oceanography. New York: Reinhold, p. 146. 1021pp.Google Scholar
  121. Zeuner, F.E., 1945/1959. The Pleistocene Period (2nd ed. 1959, Hutchinson & Co., 447pp). London: Royal Society.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  • Rhodes W. Fairbridge

There are no affiliations available