There has been a revolution in our understanding of changes in Earths climate and their impacts on the evolution of life.  This course examines how geoscientists study the climatic responses of Earths major systems (the oceans, atmosphere, ice sheets, land surfaces, and vegetation) and how they evolved (sometimes rapidly) over the course of geologic time. 

A thorough understanding of past climate change is essential to inform us about changes that will undoubtedly occur in the future, so the course covers key themes in the last several hundred million years of Earths history, including: the relationship between plate tectonics, atmospheric CO2, the biosphere and greenhouse climates on billion-year to annual time scales; the causes of extreme climate change, including the so-called Snowball Earth events; the transition from greenhouse to ice-age climates over the last 50 million years; the causes of ice ages and abrupt climate change; and the factors that have influenced global warming over the last 125 years. 

Students will learn how the geochemistry of natural palaeoclimate archives and numerical models are used to reconstruct the history of the climate system and identify the causes of climate change.  The geochronological tools used to track climatic change through Earth's history will also be explained.  A key outcome of this course will be a firm understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological processes that control Earths climate and how they may interact to modulate climate change in the future.  In addition to textbooks, and research-based lectures and practicals, journal articles of greater conceptual difficulty will be made available for students who wish to explore their personal interests in climate change.

Honours pathway option (HPO)

Additional readings of greater conceptual difficulty requiring an advanced scientific understanding will be made available for students enrolled in the Honours pathway option (HPO). 20 per cent of the marks available on the exam will be answers to alternate questions for HPO students. Integration of this material in the essay will be expected.

On satisfying the requirements of this course, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Explain how the components of Earths climate system (and carbon cycle) have evolved through geologic time.

2. Explain how palaeoclimate science has developed over the past century

3. Describe in detail the positive and negative feedbacks in the earth’s land-ocean-atmosphere system that control climate change on timescales ranging from millions to hundreds of years.

4.  Quantitatively analyse past climate change using elemental and isotopic tracers, palaeoclimate archives, and state-of-the art geochronology.

5.  Have a firm scientific basis for evaluating the likely causes and potential impacts of future climate change.

6.  Inform peer students and the wider public how understanding past climate systems is important in the current debates about climate change.

Assessment will be based on:

• 3 exams at ~20% each (60%) LO 1-4
• Practicals (20%) LO 1-4
• Presentations (20%) LO 1, 2, 5, 6

Students in the graduate level course (EMSC6027) will be given additional assessment which will be agreed upon in the first week of semester.

A maximum of 39 hours of lectures/tutorials and 26 hours of practicals.

Prerequisite: CHEM1101,  EMSC2014, EMSC2019

Students who do not meet the above requirements should email Student.Admin.RSES@anu.edu.au to request special permission to enrol.

1.  W.F. Ruddiman, Earth’s Climate: Past and Future (2008), Freeman and Company, New York.

2.  E.T. Sundquist and K. Visser (2004), The Geologic History of the Carbon Cycle in Treatise on Geochemistry Vol. 8, Biogeochemistry (ed. W.H. Schlesinger), pp. 425-461, Elsevier – Pergamon, Oxford.

3  R.A. Houghton (2004), The Contemporary Carbon Cycle in Treatise on Geochemistry Vol. 8, Biogeochemistry (ed. W.H. Schlesinger), pp. 473-508, Elsevier – Pergamon, Oxford.