climatic shifts
Long-term weather transformations
Climatic shifts are significant, lasting changes in weather patterns over a region or the planet.
The term encompasses both gradual transitions—like the warming trends of recent decades—and abrupt changes in geological history.
Unlike seasonal variation or year-to-year fluctuations, climatic shifts represent fundamental alterations to temperature, precipitation, or atmospheric conditions: Climatic shifts have driven mass extinctions throughout Earth's history.
- ocean acidificationSeawater pH dropping from CO2
- glacial meltingWarming-induced ice loss
- paleogeographyStudy of ancient Earth surfaces
- PlioceneLate Neogene epoch
- sedimentary layersAccumulated geological deposits
stratigraphy · greenhouse gases · carbon footprint · Milankovitch cycles · extinction events · sea level rise · Younger Dryas · ocean currents · paleoclimatology · dendrochronology · desertification · dust bowl · ancient ecosystems · volcanic eruptions · sea level · polar ice caps · deforestation · rainfall