Lecture 6: Solid Earth (Outline)

Plate Tectonics and Climate

Tectonic-Scale Climate Change

Plate Tectonics

Circulation of the Solid Earth

Twenty Rigid Plates

Continental and Oceanic Crusts

Temperature Structures in the Solid Earth

Heat In Earth’s Interior

Internal Structure of the Earth

The Theory of Plate Tectonics

Seafloor Spreading

Plate Margins

Chemical Weathering

Negative Feedback From Chemical Weathering

Earth’s Thermostat – Chemical Weathering

Faint Young Sun Paradox

Tectonic-Scale Climate Change

Tectonic Control of CO₂ Input – The Seafloor Spreading Rate Hypothesis

Tectonic Control of CO₂ Removal – The Uplift Weathering Hypothesis

Can These Two Hypotheses Explain Tectonic-Scale Climate Changes?

The Polar Position Hypothesis

Climate Changes in the Last 500 Myr