Education & Outreach

Have you ever wondered how scientists gather data to determine whether global temperatures are warming or what climate was like during the Ice Ages?

Paleoclimate researchers conduct studies on coral cores, ice cores, tree rings, pollen, sediment from oceans and lakes, varves, pack rat middens and other products of nature in order to learn about past climates.

The links below will help you understand how scientists collect climatic data from the past, before the days of the thermometer, barometer, rain gauge and other weather instruments.

Highlights from the Paleoclimatology Program website

• Introduction to Paleoclimatology
• View Paleoclimatology Slides
• Paleo Perspectives: A special, in-depth look at topics significant to climate change (Global Warming, Northern American Drought, etc.)
• The Coral Paleoclimatology Education Page
• Climate TimeLine Information Tool

External links offering additional educational information on Paleoclimatology

Ocean Sciences

• The Bridge: Ocean Sciences Teacher Center Supported by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program

Coral Cores

• NOAA's Coral Health and Monitoring Program
• NOAA's Coral Reef Home Page
• NOAA's CoRIS (Coral Reef Information System)

Tree Rings

• Resource Page on Tree Rings, courtesy of the University of Tennessee
• The Ancient Bristlecone Pine focusing on the White-Inyo mountain range of California

Pollen

• Magnified Pollen Grains from Different Plants hosted by University of Waterloo, Canada
• Global Atlas of Paleovegetation hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Additional Information Resources

• Science Article: Tree Rings and Volcanoes
• Deep Sea Sample Repository: A long history of coring the ocean floor.
• Ocean Drilling Program funded by NSF and 22 international partners
• Virtual Earth Trips, courtesy of Cornell University, and the Paleontological Research Institute
• Learning from the Fossil Record, courtesy of the University of California at Berkeley
• Climatologist's Toolbox, courtesy of The Why Files, University of Wisconsin
• Henri D. Grissino-Mayer's Science of Dendrochronology Web Pages
• Geological Society of America Education Center
• USGS Educational Site
• NOAA WIND and SEA Teachers' and Students' Corner
• EPA Global Warming
• The Discovery of Global Warming from the American Institute of Physics
• EPA Surf Your Watershed