Regional Expressions of Global Warmth: Lessons from the Pliocene
Date: Monday, February 11, 2008
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Location: Geological Museum, Room 100
24 Oxford Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Speaker: Christina Ravelo
Professor of Ocean Sciences, University of California at Santa Cruz
Chair of the US Science Advisory Committee for Scientific Ocean Drilling

Description:
As atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations increase, understanding long term climate change by studying the geologic past is imperative. The early Pliocene epoch (~4.5 – 3.0 myrs ago) was the most recent period of sustained global warmth compared to today. Regional expressions of this globally warm period suggest that an El Niño-like climate state prevailed. What do Pliocene observations tell us about mechanisms of climate change during globally warm periods? How can Pliocene observations be utilized to assess the performance of climate models used to simulate global warming? This lecture will explore strategies for using geologic data to examine these broad questions.

Christina Ravelo is a professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC). Her research interests are focused on understanding past ocean and climate changes by using ocean sediments, stable isotope geochemistry, and other geochemical tools. She is currently serving as the director of the UCSC branch of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP), and chair of the US Science Advisory Committee for Scientific Ocean Drilling.

For more information, visit www.radcliffe.edu or call 617-495-8600.

Lectures are designed for the interested layperson and are free and open to the public.

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Lecture in the Sciences

Cosponsored by the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department
Colloquium Series, Harvard University