Abstract
II. CAUSES OF GEOLOGICAL CHANGES OF CLIMATE. THE preceding article closed with a discussion of Wegener's theory of continental drift. That theory is still sub judice, but it was pointed out that even if it be ultimately accepted, it does not solve the problem of climatic changes. Köppen and Wegener themselves recognise this, for they adopt astronomical changes as an explanation of glacial and interglacial stages, and suggest also that astronomical changes may have been important in the Tertiary succession of Europe. Apart from this, however, any one looking at Wegener's reconstructions and remembering the way in which the land and sea distribution at the present day dominates the local distribution of climate., cannot but realise that these extensive rearrangements must have brought about corresponding changes of climate, quite apart from those due to the supposed changes of latitude. Köppen and Wegener implicitly assume that the distribution of climate depends only on the distribution of solar heat at the outer limit of the earth's atmosphere, but even if the radiation from the sun be supposed to have remained constant, there are many factors of climate other than the astronomical conditions. These factors have been discussed in a large number of books and papers which include some very brilliant work. This great mass of literature is surely worth a thought.
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References
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BROOKS, C. Climatic Changes during Geological Times1. Nature 118, 53–55 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118053a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118053a0