Paleoclimatology



![Ice core data for the past 800,000 years . Note length of glacial-interglacial cycles averages ~100,000 years. Blue curve is temperature,[16] red curve is atmospheric CO2 concentrations,[17] and brown curve is dust fluxes.[18][19] Today's date is on the left side of the graph because the x-axis values represent](/uploads/202502/01/EDC_TempCO2Dust.svg2427.png)
Paleoclimatology (in British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth. It uses a variety of proxy methods from the Earth and life sciences to obtain data previously preserved within things such as rocks, sediments, ice sheets, tree rings, corals, shells and microfossils. It then uses the records to determine the past states of the Earth's various climate regions and its atmospheric system. Studies of past changes in the environment and biodiversity often reflect on the current situation, specifically the impact of climate on mass extinctions and biotic recovery.