Prehistoric life
Earth's climate is not constant. Over geological time, the Earth's dominant climate has gone from ice age to tropical heat and from steamy jungles to searing deserts. When such climate change occurs abruptly - either in the form of a global warming or cooling - animals and plants have no time to adapt so mass extinctions can occur.
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Weather wise
Algae and plant fossils reveal evidence of a massive climate change in the mid-Jurassic.
Dr Ruben Cuneo of Trelew Palaeontological Museum explains how fossils of stromatolites, conifers and ferns show that there was a massive climate change in the mid-Jurassic. This programme was first shown in 2002.
The return of Snowball Earth?
Runaway ice sheet growth could lock the planet into a vicious circle of freezing.
Russian climatologist, Mikhail Budyko calculated that Earth's climate has a theoretical break point. Too much ice could trigger a global freeze cycle. This programme was first shown in 2001.
The end of Snowball Earth
Massive ice sheet melt created violent climate change and unleashed Earth's elemental powers.
Snowball Earth was ended by incredibly violent climate change. Paul Hoffman and Dan Schrag explain the science behind this. This programme was first shown in 2001.
Permian extinction explained
Loose ends are tied up at last to explain the Permian mass extinction.
The Permian mass extinction was caused by two things: volcanic eruptions and methane release. This programme was first shown in 2002.
Pollen record
Pollen resists the ravages of time to leave a botanical fingerprint and record of ancient climate.
Pollen resists the ravages of time to leave a botanical fingerprint and record of ancient climate.
The Geologic temperature record are changes in Earth's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion (109) year time scales. The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a crucial component of the climate and oceanography of the time.
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Cryogenian period
Silurian period
Carboniferous period
Permian period
Triassic period
Jurassic period
Oligocene epoch
Miocene epoch
Pliocene epoch
Pleistocene epoch
