levo

Environmental Threats to Our Planet

Climate change through the Quaternary, and since 1000AD

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 02

Overview

When the Quaternary began, its swings between glacial and interglacial phases, the interglacial we live in now, why sea level fell in each ice age, the medieval warming, the Little Ice Age and modern warming in order, and how modern warming differs from earlier changes.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

What is the overall pattern of global temperature through the Quaternary?

Key term

What is meant by a glacial period?

Key term

What is meant by an interglacial?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    When did the Quaternary period begin?

    Model answer

    About 2.6 million years ago, and it runs through to the present day.

  2. 2

    What is the overall pattern of global temperature through the Quaternary?

    Model answer

    Temperature has swung repeatedly between long cold glacial phases and shorter warm interglacial phases rather than staying steady.

  3. 3

    What is meant by a glacial period?

    Model answer

    A cold phase, lasting roughly a hundred thousand years, when ice sheets and glaciers advanced far beyond their present limits.

  4. 4

    What is meant by an interglacial?

    Model answer

    A warmer phase between two glacials, usually only ten to fifteen thousand years long, when the ice retreated.

  5. 5

    Which kind of climate phase are we living in today?

    Model answer

    An interglacial, which began roughly twelve thousand years ago when the last ice advance ended.

  6. 6

    Why did sea level fall during each ice age?

    Model answer

    So much water was locked up in growing ice sheets and glaciers that it never returned to the oceans.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Ecosystems of the Planet
Environmental Threats to Our Planet
Fieldwork Skills
Geographical Skills

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

The trade winds drive warm surface water .
westwardseastwardsnorthwards

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AMore sunspots mean the Sun is giving out more energy.
BMore reaches the Earth and the climate warms.
CFewer sunspots mean a cooler climate.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Obliquity means the angle of tilt of the Earth's axis.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Environmental Threats to Our Planet, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.