Learning objectives
The aim of the course is to introduce the student to a field of stratigraphy which shows an increasing importance, and to its applications in establishing time scale based on astromical dating methods and in reconstructing climate changes.
Course unit content
<br /><br />Introduction<br />Eccentricity, precession and obliquity cycles and their control on insolation; astronomical solutions<br />Astronomical Ice Age theory of Milankovitch<br />Astronomical Time Scale (examples from Mediterranean Neogene)<br />Orbital forcing on Neogene climate (e.g. sapropels formations in the Mediterranean, global cooling)
Bibliography
<br />1) Schwarzacher W., 1993. Cyclostratigraphy and the Milankovitch Theory. Developments in Sedimentology 52, Elsevier, 225 pp.<br />2) Hilgen F., Astronomical Solution: from Solar System to Insolation; Astronomical Time Scale: from Cycles to Geological Time. In “Paleoceanography: Theory and Field evidence”, Paleoceanography School held in Naples 25 September-2 October 2003, pp. 2-16.<br />3) Ruddiman W.F., 2000. Earth’s climate: past and future. W.H. Freeman and Company, New York, NY, USA, pp. 465.