Synopsis
This book studies the history and gives an analysis of extreme climate change on Earth. In order to provide a long-term perspective, the first chapter briefly reviews some of the wild gyrations that occurred in the Earth’s climate hundreds of millions of years snowball Earth and hothouse Earth. Coming closer to modern times, the effects of continental drift, particularly the closing of the Isthmus of Panama are believed to have contributed to the advent of ice ages in the past three million years. This first chapter sets the stage for a discussion of ice ages in the geological recent past (i.e. within the last three million years, with an emphasis on the last few hundred thousand years).The second chapter discusses geological evidence for ice ages – how geologists surmised their existence prior to actual subsurface data that proved the theory. The following two chapters look at ice cores (primarily from Greenland and Antarctica). Chapter 3 discusses how ice core data is processed and Chapter 4 summarizes data obtained from ice cores. Chapter 5 discusses the processing of data obtained from ocean sediments, and summarizes the results, while the following chapter discusses data from other sources, such as "Devil’s Cave."Chapter 7 summarizes the experimental results from Chapters 4, 5, and 6. It provides the foundation for comparison with theories in later chapters. In a perfect world, this data would be totally separate and disconnected from theory. Unfortunately, as the author shows, dating of much of the data was accomplished by "tuning" to the astronomical theory, which introduces circular reasoning.Chapter 8 provides a brief overview of the various theories that have been devised to "explain" the patterns of alternating ice ages and interglacials that have occurred over the past three million years. This serves as an introduction to the following three chapters which presents the astronomical theory in its various manifestations,compare the astronomical theory with data, and then compare other theories with data. Finally, Chapter 12 summarizes what we think we know about ice ages and, more importantly, what we don’t know.
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From the Back Cover
Existing books on ice ages are mostly short, popular, and non-technical. Many deal with the effects of the last ice age on flora and fauna. The small book by the Imbries is mostly historical and reflects their undying belief in the astronomical theory. The only book that attempts to deal with the broad issues of what we know about past ice ages and why they occur is the book by Muller and MacDonald (M&M), published by Praxis. However, despite its many good features, this book suffers from an inordinate emphasis on spectral analysis, a lack of coverage of new data, and a very confusing sequence of chapters. As a result, the data and theory are so intimately entwined that it is difficult to separate one from the other.
This book will provide an independent and hopefully complete summary of the latest data, independent of theory or analysis. This will be far more extensive than that given by M&M. Only then, after presenting the data, will theories be explored and comparisons made with the data.
This book will become the premier reference and sourcebook on ice ages.
It will also connect up to more recent times regarding climate change.
About the Author
Donald Rapp has had a long and varied science and engineering career with 48 years of experience after receiving his Ph. D. from the University of California in January, 1960. He was a professor for 14 years, and achieved the rank of full professor at age 40. Over the years, he has developed a unique talent to move into a field, research it thoroughly, and write an incisive, perceptive summary of the field. His capabilities are widely sought for writing summary technical reports and technical proposals.
He has published many scientific papers and five text books: Quantum Mechanics, Statistical Mechanics, Solar Energy, Human Missions to Mars, and Assessing Climate Change. The Mars and Climate books were published by Praxis Publishing, so Praxis/Springer is familiar with my abilities.
His five books are summarized at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~drdrapp/
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