Reconstructing past climates

Which of the following is an external forcing factor that drives global climate?

• Volcanic eruptions

• Plate tectonics

• Solar activity

• Forest Fires

What climate epoch are we currently living in?

• Holocene

• Pleistocene

• Pliocene

• Eocene

When did the Quaternary begin?

• Approx. 0.8 million years ago

• Approx. 1.4 million years ago

• Approx. 2.6 million years ago

• Approx. 3.5 million years ago

What was the Younger Dryas Event?

• A stable period of climate, with no fluctuations

• A 100,000 glaciation of the Southern Hemisphere

• A major global warming event which caused extensive wild fires on all continents

• A 1200, rapid cooling of the Northern Hemisphere, leading to regrowth of ice

Which of the following are commonly used as proxies for past climate (select 3)?

• Pollen grains

• Meteorite fragments

• Macro and micro fossils

• Ice cores

Where does the earliest fossil evidence indicate that Homo sapiens migrated from to other regions of the world?

• Africa

• Asia

• Europe

• South America

What is 'dendrochronology'?

• The analysis of ice cores

• The analysis of stalagmites

• The analysis of tree rings

• The analysis of volcanic ash

Other than climate change, what is likely to explain the disappearance of Pleistocene megafauna?

• Hunting and overexploitation by humans

• Extra terrestrial impact

• Disease

• Earthquakes