Climatic Changes: Their Nature and CausesHuntington, Ellsworth
Science
Climatic Changes: Their Nature and Causes
Huntington, Ellsworth
Climatic changes; Climatology; Paleoclimatology
Let us now inquire into the relation between the small cyclonic
vacillations of the weather and the types of climatic changes known as
historic pulsations and glacial fluctuations. One of the most
interesting results of recent investigations is the evidence that
sunspot cycles on a small scale present almost the same phenomena as do
historic pulsations and glacial fluctuations. For instance, when
sunspots are numerous, storminess increases markedly in a belt near the
northern border of the area of greatest storminess, that is, in southern
Canada and thence across the Atlantic to the North Sea and Scandinavia.
(See Figs. 2 and 3.) Corresponding with this is the fact that the
evidence as to climatic pulsations in historic times indicates that
regions along this path, for instance Greenland, the North Sea region,
and southern Scandinavia, were visited by especially frequent and severe
storms at the climax of each pulsation. Moreover, the greatest
accumulations of ice in the glacial period were on the poleward border
of the general regions where now the storms appear to increase most at
times of solar activity.
[Illustration: _Fig. 3A. Relative rainfall at times of increasing and
decreasing sunspots._
Heavy shading, more rain with increasing spots. Light shading, more rain
with decreasing spots. No data for unshaded areas.
Figures indicate percentages of the average rainfall by which the
rainfall during periods of increasing spots exceeds or falls short of
rainfall during periods of decreasing spots. The excess or deficiency is
stated in percentages of the average. Rainfall data from Walker:
Sunspots and Rainfall.]
[Illustration: _Fig. 3B. Relative rainfall at times of increasing and
decreasing sunspots._
Heavy shading, more rain with increasing spots. Light shading, more rain
with decreasing spots. No data for unshaded areas. Figures indicate
percentages of the average rainfall by which the rainfall during periods
of increasing spots exceeds or falls short of rainfall during periods of
decreasing spots. The excess or deficiency is stated in percentages of
the average. Rainfall data from Walker: Sunspots and Rainfall.]
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