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Climate changes of 535-536 (535–536 AD), sudden cooling and failure of harvests, perhaps caused by volcanic dust; 900–1300 Medieval Warm Period, wet in Europe, arid in North America, may have depopulated the Great Plains of North America, associated with the Medieval renaissances in Europe Great Famine of 1315–1317 in Europe
In 1862, Lord Kelvin calculated the age of the Earth at between 20 million and 400 million years by assuming that Earth had formed as a completely molten object, and determined the amount of time it would take for the near-surface to cool to its present temperature. Since uniformitarianism required a much older Earth, there was a contradiction.
However, the Earth's eccentricity is so small (at least at present) that the variation in solar irradiation is a minor factor in seasonal climate variation, compared to axial tilt and even compared to the relative ease of heating the larger land masses of the northern hemisphere. [11]
These cycles alter the total amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by a small amount and affect the timing and intensity of the seasons. This mechanism is thought to be responsible for the timing of the ice age cycles, and understanding of the mechanism was increasing rapidly in the mid-1970s.
Based on calculations of Earth's cooling rate, which assumed constant conductivity in the Earth's interior, in 1862 William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, estimated the age of the Earth at 98 million years, [10] which contrasts with the age of 4.5 billion years obtained in the 20th century by radiometric dating. [11]
Animal migration – Avalanche – Carbon cycle – Climate change – Climate change and agriculture – Climate model – Climate oscillation – Clock of the Long Now – Ecology – El Niño/La Niña – Endometrium – Environmental geography – Global cooling – Global warming – Historical temperature record – Hydrogen cycle – Ice age – Transhumance – Milankovitch cycles ...
The cycles of glaciation involve the growth and retreat of continental ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere and involve fluctuations on a number of time scales, notably on the 21 ky, 41 ky and 100 ky scales. Such cycles are usually interpreted as being driven by predictable changes in the Earth orbit known as Milankovitch cycles.
The five components of the climate system all interact. They are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. [1]: 1451 Earth's climate system is a complex system with five interacting components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things).
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