Historical Record

Written records of the past

By using past records we can determine past
temperatures
Tree Rings using the cores of trees
7,000-11,000
different rings can depict drought or different periods
through the rings
Lake Sediment Dirt and living organisms that sink to the bottom of a
body of water
10,000 years max in lakes and longer in oceans
can depict minor and major disturbances (epidemics,
volcanic eruptions, drought, fires)
Diatoms Microbes used as proxies
short lifespans yet take us back 65 million years
Sediment cores from oceans and lakes to be used to
detect past nutrient values and reconstructing past climates
Ice Cores Using piece of ice from an ice sheet to detect seasonal
changes
800,000, very accurate depict volcanic eruptionS
sea salt concentrations, past temps, atmospheric gasses
and dust
Bivalves different growth lines on shells
short lifespans yet go back 200-500 years
make climate predictions based on the lines on a shell
Corals thickness of annual growth bands in corals
around 443 million years ago
depict sea levels and past climates through the growth
bands, very few areas for coral to grow, coral is fragile and will die very
easily
Boreholes
Holes drilled in ground to predict climate
Up to 1,000 years back
Very accurate predictions of climate based on deep holes
dug beneath Earths surface