Plate tectonics and the evolution of climate
http://www.geo.umass.edu/climate/papers2/deconto_tectonics&climate.pdf

Norman Sleep, Stanford University, Department of Geophysics


This resource is no longer officially part of our collection This resource has been removed from our collection, likely because the original resource is no longer available. If you have further information about the link (e.g. a new location where the information can be found) please let us know.

You may be able to find previous versions at the Internet Archive.

Recent work has shown that climate, life, and tectonics interact in ways that are sometimes profound yet not obvious. Norman Sleep reviews two better understood terrestrial examples in this paper. First, the development of compressional orogens is strongly influenced by climate in that the extent of erosion determines whether high or low mountain ranges develop. Second, global geochemical processes are strongly influenced by tectonics and climate. For example, the build-up of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere has been aided by deposit of organic-rich sediments in new ocean basins which prevented reaction of the oxygen with the reduced products of photosynthesis. The volume of the ocean depends on the extent to which water is subducted within the oceanic crust and sediments and on the extent which this water is returned to the surface at island arcs. Comparative planetology and further terrestrial studies are likely to yield additional examples of climatic, biological, and tectonic interaction.

This description of a site outside SERC has not been vetted by SERC staff and may be incomplete or incorrect. If you have information we can use to flesh out or correct this record let us know.


This resource originally cataloged at:

DLESE
This resource is referenced here:
Subject: Geoscience:Geology:Geophysics:Geodesy
Resource Type: Scientific Resources:Overview/Reference Work
Grade Level: Graduate/Professional, College Upper (15-16)
Theme: Teach the Earth:Course Topics:Geophysics, Geodesy