Please hand out to 4 students on the way into class

Roving Reporter 1: Your job today is to report back to the class at the start of the lesson what we learnt last lesson. Roving Reporter 2: Your job today is to report back to the class at the end of the lesson how glacial features and landforms can be used to prove that we have had lots of glacials in the past.

Roving Reporter 3: Your job today is to report back to the class at the end of the lesson how fossils can be used to prove that we have had lots of glacials in the past.

Roving Reporter 4: Your job today is to report back to the class at the end of the lesson how Ice Cores can be used to prove that we have had lots of glacials in the past.

What evidence do we have to prove we have had 20 glacials in the last 20 million years of the Pleistocene Ice Age?
L.O.s To identify the main sources of evidence To explain how they prove we have had glacials in the past.

Evidence no.1: Ice Cores

How do Ice Cores work?

Scientists drill down into the Ice at the Polar Ice caps (Greenland and Antarctica) which can be 4kms thick! The Ice has air bubbles trapped from when the snow fell.

The air bubbles contain CO

 Scientists can work out the age of the Ice by counting the layers in the Ice (a bit like tree rings). The thicker darker layers are the winter snow and the thinner - summer snow.

The CO is then analysed. It is a greenhouse gas so just like today the higher CO levels are the hotter it is. The lower CO levels are in the air bubbles the colder it was in the past.

An Inconvenient Truth - DVD

Chapter 8 Ice Cores VOCATIONAL LINK: You could work as a research scientist in an investigation on past and present climate change you could even get to work on Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey!

Evidence no.2: Glacial features

We can see for ourselves the landforms eroded and carved out by the glaciers

There are also deposits left by glaciers

Till is gravel and boulder clay carried by glaciers and dumped as they melted. It can show us how far a glacier travelled.

Erratics are large boulders carried on top of the glacier and dumped when it melted: http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/cannock01.swf

Evidence no.3 : Fossil evidence

During a glacial period cold-adapted organisms spread south into lower latitudes, and organisms that prefer warmer conditions become extinct. By looking at fossils and ancient seeds in the rocks we can tell what the climate was when the rock was made. Carbon dating can help us put an age to the rocks.

Evaluating the evidence for Glaciation

Type of Evidence How it works Are there any problems with this type of evidence?

Plenary : Lets here back from our Roving Reporters

Roving Reporter 1: Your job today is to report back to the class at the start of the lesson what we learnt last lesson. Roving Reporter 2: Your job today is to report back to the class at the end of the lesson how glacial features and landforms can be used to prove that we have had lots of glacials in the past.

Roving Reporter 3: Your job today is to report back to the class at the end of the lesson how fossils can be used to prove that we have had lots of glacials in the past.

Roving Reporter 4: Your job today is to report back to the class at the end of the lesson how Ice Cores can be used to prove that we have had lots of glacials in the past.

Homework:
http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/cannock01. swf