Isotope Evidence for Climate Change - Lecture 26

Explore the use of isotopes as climate proxies in this 47-minute lecture from Yale University's course on The Atmosphere, the Ocean and Environmental Change. Discover how deuterium and oxygen-18 are employed to measure past climate properties, and learn about isotopic fractionation processes in the water cycle. Examine how these processes leave isotopic signals of temperature and continental ice volume in ice cores and deep sea sediment cores. Delve into topics such as stable water isotopes, isotope delta notation, water isotopes in ice cores, terrestrial and deep sea sediments, oxygen isotopes in ocean sediment cores, and the Milankovitch theory of ice ages. Gain valuable insights into how scientists use isotopic evidence to reconstruct past climates and understand long-term climate change patterns.