Prerequisites

This course is hosted by and based in the Department of Earth Sciences. It will assume a knowledge of Part IA NST Earth Sciences.  Students who have no prior Earth Science education are welcome to contact the lecturer for reading and background material before the course starts.

Synopsis

8 lectures and 7 seminars 
There will be two supervisions by different lecturers during the course and a revision session in Easter term. 
 
Ice cores provide invaluable information about how Earth’s climate has varied in the past. Most notably, ice cores contain samples of ancient air that reveal the clear relationship between greenhouse gases and temperature over the last 800,000 years, with implications for our future.  
 
This course explores recent advances in ice core science, combining a detailed understanding of Earth’s climate system past, present and future with fundamental concepts from geochemistry, physics and climatology. The course begins with an overview of how ice core records are obtained and used to reconstruct past climate. Each session will then be focused on a current research topic in ice core science. A lecture that provides the fundamental knowledge is followed by student-led paper discussion seminars that explore the latest research in depth. Students will be encouraged to think critically when reading research papers and to develop their own scientific opinions. Topics to be covered include: (i) synchronisation of ice cores and other palaeoclimate archives; (ii) advanced interpretation of water stable isotopes; (iii) ocean temperature reconstructions; (iv) new constraints on methane sources past and present; (v) human interaction with the climate and environment; (vi) climate forcing and response. The course culminates in a group discussion held at the British Antarctic Survey. The topic will be ‘ice cores of the future’: How will the Anthropocene be recorded and will there be ice to study? What could we learn from an ice core from Mars? 
 
Individual seminar presentation (~15 mins) on a research paper (formative). 
Examination: Theory exam: 2 hours, answer two questions from a choice of four. 

Contact: teaching@esc.cam.ac.uk