Litho vs Climate Notes

1. Notes:
Summarize: Five lines to write on
Width ~ 3 Fingers
Key Words and
Questions:
Lithospheric Effects on Climate
Change

2. Theory of
Continental
Drift
• Historic movement of continents due to plate tectonics

3. Plate
Tectonics
• Movement of lithospheric plates driven by
convection/mantle movements

4. In what ways
could
continental
movement
affected
climate?
1. Continent locations relative to equator changes angle
of incoming insolation

5. In what ways
could
continental
movement
affected
climate?
2. Location of continents changed ocean and wind
currents, both which drive weather patterns

6. In what ways
could
continental
movement
affected
climate?
3. A single land mass has a higher albedo than water, thus
reflects more energy, thus colder temperatures

7. Timeline:
• Plates moves ~1-3 cm per year
• Tens to hundreds of millions of years

8. Effects of
Volcanoes
on Climate
Change
• Volcanoes near equator affect both hemispheres, those
away from equator affect on their own
• Ash – blocks insolation, can causes cooling for months
worldwide
• Sulfur – combines with atmosphere to block insolation, can
causes cooling for years
• Greenhouse Gases – emitted but don’t effect current global
amounts; historically they used to have a big warming effect