Part I. EarthViewer
How the Climate and Biota Interact
Open the app EarthViewer or the EarthViewer on the internet. Make sure you are on the paleo earth view. On the bottom of your screen, use “charts” and click on the appropriate chart to answer the following questions. Move the slider to between the Cambrian and Ordovician Periods.
1. What was the average temperature at this time?
2. What was the average percent oxygen?
3. What was the average ppm of carbon dioxide?
4. What is the average ppm of carbon dioxide today (you will need to move the slider to the end of the Neogene)?
5. What is the average temperature today?
6. How are the values from the Cambrian-Ordovician Period boundary differ from those today?
7. The Cambrian and Ordovician Periods are notable for their diverse marine invertebrates, like trilobites (Fig. 1). Plants did not emerge on land until the Silurian Period. How do these facts explain the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during this time? (Hint: Think about photosynthesis and respiration
Figure 1. Trilobite fossil
Now move the slider to between the Carboniferous and Permian Periods.
1. What was the average percent oxygen?
2. What was the average ppm of carbon dioxide?
3. The term, “Carboniferous” refers to the great deposits of coal that date to this Period. Knowing this, what can you infer about the biomass of land plants during this Period
4. The swamps of the Carboniferous were filled with giant insects. Meganeura had a 60 cm wingspan (Fig. 2), while its largest relative today (Megaloprepus) has only a 19 cm wingspan. Touch “in depth” and read “Oxygen and Animal Size”. Why could these animals be so large during this Period and not today?
Figure 2. Meganeura compared to man.
Greenhouse Gasses
Touch “in depth” and read “Greenhouse Effect”.
1. Scrolling across time from the Cambrian to modern times, what is the relationship between temperature and carbon dioxide? Why does this relationship ex
2. Click on the “warming earth” to zoom in to the last 100 years. Move back in time slowly from today to the year 1912 watching the North Pole and then the South Pole (You can rotate the globe to view the change on each pole). Which pole experienced the greater rise in temperature?
3. On the charts select CO2. By how much does CO2 increase from 1912 to 2012?
4. What is the mean difference in global temperature in 1912? In 2012? How large a change is that?
5. What do you think is responsible for the changes in CO2 and temperature that have been recorded over the past 100 years
Part 2. Scale Model of Geologic Time
Watch the following video about how different events relate to the history of the earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8V_glRW1hA
Use the table below to answer the following questions about the history of the earth
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