Climate history

Climate history

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8 April 2009

Climate history

The Earth 's climate has never been static , having constantly undergone significant changes over the past several billions of years . Alternating between warm and cool modes , the changes in climatic conditions have had a significant impact on the state of the planet . These changes occur slowly over a period of time and even now , they are still occurring albeit at a gradual pace that may not be immediately observable . One of the earliest recorded climates

is that of the Cambrian epoch approximately 540 million years ago . There isn 't enough information on the Cambrian climate but it is probable that it was neither too hot nor too cold . Also , evidence shows that the poles did not have ice (Scotese 2004 . Francis (1992 ) posits that the Cambrian climate was dominantly tropical to sub- tropical ' There is some evidence on the possibility of glaciations in Cambrian West Africa as well as problematic deposits in Asia , Europe , North and South America . The beginning of the warm mode after the cool Precambrian climate is placed at the early Cambrian period . During this time , there were low numbers of genera as well as species . Diversity began to be witnessed in the middle Cambrian period but in the late Cambrian it surprisingly decreased . It is however not clear whether this decrease was brought about by a change in climatic conditions or a different kind of environmental change

After the Cambrian epoch came the...