• Question: How will climate change affect the geology of our planet??

    Asked by laurenshep21 to Laura, Hannah, Christian on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Laura Roberts Artal

      Laura Roberts Artal answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      I can’t think of any immediate effects. Except that acid rain would mean alkali rocks, such as limestone, are eroded away faster than they are now. Maybe Hannah and Christian can think of something I’ve not.
      I think the changes would be more long term. I think the types of rocks being created would be different as our environment changes, particularly sedimentary rocks.

    • Photo: Hannah Bentham

      Hannah Bentham answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      We actually use sedimentary rocks to find out about past climates so climate change will have a big impact on them. Typically geologists would look for fossils, amount of salt, grain size distribution and organic matter, as these are traces to different environments that sediments were deposited in.

      The erosion rate of igneous rocks depends on the climate too.

    • Photo: Christian Maerz

      Christian Maerz answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      There might be a number of effects of climate change on Earth’s geology – in fact, from studying rocks around the world, we have evidence that this has been the case in the past!
      For example, global warming through increased atmospheric carbon dioxide will results in the melting of ice sheets, and this will increase the uplift of previously ice-covered areas. In addition, under higher carbon dioxide conditions, these now uncovered areas will weather more quickly. This weathering process involves chemical reactions that consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If ice sheets were covering volcanic areas, the decrease in overburden on the underlying magma chambers can result in the onset of volcanic eruptions.
      However, all of these processes will take time, and will certainly not be visible within our lifespans.

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