ICE AGES: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Emeritus Professor John Compton, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town
Monday 27–Wednesday 29 January 11.15 am COURSE FEES R330; Staff and students R165
We are currently living in an ice age, with a major ice sheet situated over Antarctica. This course will explore the rock record of past ice ages, our understanding of how our current ice age came about and the future possible fate of ice on Earth, given global warming. The rock record of southern Africa includes exquisite evidence of Snowball Earth, when ice is thought to have completely covered our planet: of the end-Ordovician ice age in the Pakhuis Formation that sits atop Table Mountain, of the end-Devonian ice age from deposits in the Cape Fold Belt and of the Carboniferous-Permian Gondwanan ice age in the Dwyka tillites of the Karoo Basin. What were the major driving forces behind these enormous fluctuations in the climate in the past as Earth cycled between a warm, humid greenhouse world to a cold and dry icehouse world? The origin of ice ages will be explored by looking at the 40-million-year history of how we ended up in our current ice age. The final lecture will explore the fate of ice on Earth from the onset of anthropogenic climate change as the planet warms. How long will it take for the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to melt and what will the consequences be?
Lecture titles
- Ice ages past
- Ice age present
- Ice age future
Recommended reading
Compton, J.S. 2016. Human Origins, How Diet, Climate and Landscape Shaped Us. Cape Town. Earthspun Books.
Compton, J.S. 2021. West Coast: A Natural History. Cape Town. Earthspun Books.
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