W00 G.S. 270 (CENOZOIC) ICE AGE EARTH
  (enrollment code for graduate students: 65508)
   
  First (Organizational) Meeting: 6-7 PM, Thursday, 13 Jan, 2000, Webb 1006C (Geol Sci Conference Room) At this meeting we will plan the quarter, so please come prepared to make some decisions.
 
Time?
  In general, the seminar will meet for three hours on Thursday evenings.
  5:15-8:15, 6-9, 7-10?
  One possibility: we could call in or bring food and take a light dinner break midway.
   

  Topics?
  Each participant will choose one or two topics to present to the class.
  I hope each topic will have two presenters:
  1) someone who is interested but doesn't presently know much about the subject, the "mentee" (this person will take the primary initiative for the logistics of the presentation), and
  2) a more knowledgeable "mentor" (someone who has at least an inkling of the hot sub-topics and who has ideas about where to find appropriate sources of information.)
  Please think about what topic(s) you would like to present and whether there are topics about which you could be the mentor. (I presume any attending faculty will serve as mentors for their favorite subjects; but we'll need some graduate student mentors as well.)
   
   
  I suggest that each presentation include the following:
  a basic introduction, presented by the "mentee"- presenting, at a non-specialist level, the info that every earth scientist should know. (Note: This can be the hardest part - not easy to be simple and clear.) an exercise/discussion question for the group to do and debate, one that will cement in the basic info. a second presentation covering some more advanced topics with lots of room for questions and discussion, presented by "mentee", "mentor" or both, as you wish.
 
Paperwork to be handed out to class for your presentation
  (prepared/produced by the "mentee" with input from the "mentor"): Outlines of basic and advanced topics lectures (hand in first draft to Atwater on 20 Jan) Figures, with their sources specified, for reference during your presentations. Annotated bibliography of especially useful references. Exercise/discussion question to be done in class.
   

  I would like to invite a few guests from outside. Perhaps some topics would be covered by them.

 

  POSSIBLE SEMINAR TOPICS
  Here is my list of possible topics. (This is the same list that I sent out in my e-mail of Dec 8.) Feel free to propose others.
 
Cenozoic cooling of the Earth:
  Various factors and events that led to the cooling of the planet and the stepwise response of the growing cryosphere.
 
Milankovich and sub-Milankovich climate cycles:
  Their astronomical causes and their Pleistocene/Holo- cene patterns and nomenclature, how they show up in the various data sets and how these different records agree and disagree, evidence for slow coolings and abrupt warmings and theories about the causes of rapid climate changes. Also, how they are used for "astronomical dating"
 
Ocean circulation changes:
  Openings and closings of gateways, melt water exits via the Mississippi vs the St Lawrence, pan-oceanic mid-water conveyor belt and when it was or wasn't operational.
 
Glacial conditions in Asia and North America:
  Ice extent and variations and general climatic con- ditions (wind and dust). Also, post-glacial rebound records.
 
Western North American ice age effects:
  Basin and Range lake systems and their demise, Missoula floods and resulting scab lands, Lake Bonneville floods(?), Sierran glacial record, species extinctions and species isolations with climate and sea level changes.
 
Sea level fluctuations:
  The global record, local marine terrace record, sea level-related floods in the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, and Persian Gulf, the effects of these fluctuations on the migrations of early peoples and the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia (and in China?).