Thursday, December 15, 2011

Another Croll Climate Change Paper From 1867

Earlier today I found another climate change paper by James Croll, On the Eccentricity of the Earth's Orbit, and its Physical Relations to the Glacial Epoch, published in Philisophical Magazine, Feb., 1867. It appears to have be written about the same time as the Geological Society of Glasgow paper on the change in the obliquity. The obliquity paper is rather interesting especially the part about 25 ft and 40 ft beaches at 11,700 years ago and 60,000 years ago respectively. Forests below the present sea level that alternated with mud flats point to rather large changes in sea level possibly due to the melting of a mile of the Antartic ice sheet and a shift of the Earth's center of gravity northward about 8 ft. The implication seems to be that the Arctic Ocean will rise somewhat when aphelion and the winter solstice coincide.

No comments: