GEOL 5705

Seminar in Paleoclimate

Spring 2021


Archived past offerings:
Rapid Warming, Ocean Acidification, and Anoxia: Lessons from the Past (Spring 2019)
Seminar in Paleoclimate (Landmarks and Heroes) (Spring 2017)
Paleoclimate Contributions to the 5th IPCC Report (Fall 2015)
Warm Periods of the Earth's Past (Spring 2007)
Rapid Climate Change: Holocene to Anthropocene (Spring 2005)
Recent Developments in Rapid Climate Change Research (Spring 2003)

Course description: This course will entail a weekly seminar-style critical reading of journal articles in paleoclimate (one paper per week). This year, papers will be drawn from the recent literature according to student interest. Papers may address any time interval within the Cenozoic, and any aspect of Earth's climate system.

Expectations and grading: During the semester, each student will be required to lead the discussion of several papers. Each presenter will be selected two weeks ahead of time so that they have one week to choose a paper and inform the class. One of the first two papers presented by each student is to be delivered as a 'formal' AGU style PowerPoint presentation (<15 minutes). Other papers may be presented informally and with or without visual aids, according to the presenter's preference. Each week, everyone is responsible for reading the papers and participating in the discussions. Grades will be based on overall participation (50%) and on the effort put into the presentations and discussion-leading (50%).

Meets: Wednesdays 12:40-1:30, via Zoom for now
Zoom meeting ID: tmarchitto
Zoom link
Instructor: Tom Marchitto, tom.marchitto@colorado.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Credits: 1

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Course schedule (updated weekly)
We will only be discussing the papers with names assigned after them; the others are for background
Note that most of the links below must be accessed from a campus computer or via a CU VPN
Refresh your browser if links are missing or dead

January 27: Starr et al. (2021) Antarctic icebergs reorganize ocean circulation during Pleistocene glacials (Tom)

February 3: Cramwinckel et al. (2018) Synchronous tropical and polar temperature evolution in the Eocene (Lina)

February 10: Sewall et al. (2000) Climate sensitivity to changes in land surface characteristics (Anne)

February 17: No class (wellness day)

February 24: Menviel et al. (2018) Southern Hemisphere westerlies as a driver of the early deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise (Cole)

March 3: Raia et al. (2020) Past Extinctions of Homo Species Coincided with Increased Vulnerability to Climatic Change (Emily)

March 10: Ibarra et al. (2018) Warm and cold wet states in the western United States during the Pliocene–Pleistocene (Anne)

March 17: Daradich et al. (2017) The influence of true polar wander on glacial inception in North America (Cole)

March 24: Yu et al. (2020) Last glacial atmospheric CO2 decline due to widespread Pacific deep-water expansion (Emily)

March 31: Tierney et al. (2020) Glacial cooling and climate sensitivity revisited (Lina)

April 7: Abe-Ouchi et al. (2013) Insolation-driven 100,000-year glacial cycles and hysteresis of ice-sheet volume (Cole)

April 14: Zhang et al. (2019) The evolution of latitudinal temperature gradients from the latest Cretaceous through the Present (Anne)

April 21: Westerhold et al. (2020) An astronomically dated record of Earth’s climate and its predictability over the last 66 million years (Emily)

April 28: Rustic et al. (2020) Modulation of late Pleistocene ENSO strength by the tropical Pacific thermocline (Lina)

List of possible papers that look interesting (a work in progress). Sorted in rough stratigraphic order according to the time period considered. This lists reflects the bias of Tom's interests, and students are very welcome to make their own suggestions!
Caesar et al. (2021) Current Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation weakest in last millennium
Mann et al. (2021) Multidecadal climate oscillations during the past millennium driven by volcanic forcing (or, The AMO does not exist)
Bramante et al. (2020) Increased typhoon activity in the Pacific deep tropics driven by Little Ice Age circulation changes
Degroot et al. (2021) Towards a rigorous understanding of societal responses to climate change
Lapointe et al. (2020) Annually resolved Atlantic sea surface temperature variability over the past 2,900 y
Brierley et al. (2020) Large-scale features and evaluation of the PMIP4-CMIP6 midHolocene simulations
Bova et al. (2021) Seasonal origin of the thermal maxima at the Holocene and the last interglacial
Barker et al. (2019) Early Interglacial Legacy of Deglacial Climate Instability
Li et al. (2020) Rapid shifts in circulation and biogeochemistry of the Southern Ocean during deglacial carbon cycle events
Gottschalk et al. (2020) Glacial heterogeneity in Southern Ocean carbon storage abated by fast South Indian deglacial carbon release
Shuttleworth et al. (2021) Early deglacial CO2 release from the Sub-Antarctic Atlantic and Pacific oceans
Nehrbass-Ahles et al. (2020) Abrupt CO2 release to the atmosphere under glacial and early interglacial climate conditions
Yu et al. (2020) Last glacial atmospheric CO2 decline due to widespread Pacific deep-water expansion
Zhu et al. (2021) Assessment of equilibrium climate sensitivity of the Community Earth System Model version 2 through simulation of the Last Glacial Maximum
Rae et al. (2020) Overturning circulation, nutrient limitation, and warming in the Glacial North Pacific
Klockmann et al. (2020) Coupling of the Subpolar Gyre and the Overturning Circulation During Abrupt Glacial Climate Transitions
Corrick et al. (2020) Synchronous timing of abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period
Walczak et al. (2020) Phasing of millennial-scale climate variability in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans
Windler et al. (2020) Unraveling Glacial Hydroclimate in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool: Perspectives From Water Isotopes
Geibert et al. (2021) Glacial episodes of a freshwater Arctic Ocean covered by a thick ice shelf
Clark et al. (2020) Oceanic forcing of penultimate deglacial and last interglacial sea-level rise
Friedrich and Timmermann (2020) Using Late Pleistocene sea surface temperature reconstructions to constrain future greenhouse warming
Glasscock et al. (2020) Changes in Antarctic Bottom Water Formation During Interglacial Periods
Ai et al. (2020) Southern Ocean upwelling, Earth’s obliquity, and glacial-interglacial atmospheric CO2 change
de la Vega et al. (2020) Atmospheric CO2 during the Mid-Piacenzian Warm Period and the M2 glaciation
White and Ravelo (2020) The Benthic B/Ca Record at Site 806: New Constraints on the Temperature of the West Pacific Warm Pool and the “El Padre” State in the Pliocene
Abell et al. (2021) Poleward and weakened westerlies during Pliocene warmth
Tauxe and Feakins (2020) A Reassessment of the Chronostratigraphy of Late Miocene C3–C4 Transitions
Reichgelt et al. (2020) Elevated CO2, increased leaf-level productivity, and water-use efficiency during the early Miocene
Modestou et al. (2020) Warm Middle Miocene Indian Ocean Bottom Water Temperatures: Comparison of Clumped Isotope and Mg/Ca-Based Estimates
Steinthorsdottir et al. (2021) The Miocene: the Future of the Past
Rugenstein et al. (2019) Neogene cooling driven by land surface reactivity rather than increased weathering fluxes
O'Brien et al. (2020) The enigma of Oligocene climate and global surface temperature evolution
Paytan et al. (2021) A 35-million-year record of seawater stable Sr isotopes reveals a fluctuating global carbon cycle
Anagnostou et al. (2020) Proxy evidence for state-dependence of climate sensitivity in the Eocene greenhouse
Zhu et al. (2019) Simulation of Eocene extreme warmth and high climate sensitivity through cloud feedbacks
Inglis et al. (2020) Global mean surface temperature and climate sensitivity of the early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO), Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), and latest Paleocene
Miller et al. (2020) Cenozoic sea-level and cryospheric evolution from deep-sea geochemical and continental margin records
Hull et al. (2020) On impact and volcanism across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary