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Discussions on Climate and Cosmology
First published in 1885, this investigation of the ice ages questions well-established contemporary theories in botany, geology and physics.
James Croll (Author)
9781108055307, Cambridge University Press
Paperback / softback, published 21 February 2013
346 pages, 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2 cm, 0.44 kg
The cause of the ice ages was a puzzle to nineteenth-century climatologists. One of the most popular theories was that the affected continents must somehow have been hugely elevated and, like mountains, iced over. However, in this 1885 study of the problem, James Croll (1821–90) argues that such staggering movement would have been impossible. Instead, he puts forward a new theory: that the eccentricity of the earth's orbit changes at regular intervals over long periods, creating 'great secular summers and winters'. Adopting a meticulous approach to the facts, he disproves a host of well-established notions across several disciplines and makes some remarkable deductions, including the effect of ocean currents on climate, the temperature of space, and even the age of the sun. With a focus on logical argument and explanation rather than mathematics, his book remains fascinating and accessible to students in the history of science.
Preface
1. The failure of attempts to account for secular changes of climate
2. Misapprehensions regarding the physical theory of secular changes of climate
3. Misapprehensions regarding the physical theory of secular changes of climate (cont.)
4. Objection that the air at the equator is not hotter in January than in July
5. The ice of Greenland and the Antarctic continent not due to elevation of the land
6. Examination of Mr Alfred R. Wallace's modification of the physical theory of secular changes of climate
7. Examination of Mr Alfred R. Wallace's modification of the physical theory of secular changes of climate (cont.)
8. Examination of Mr Alfred R. Wallace's modification of the physical theory of secular changes of climate (cont.)
9. The physical cause of mild polar climates
10. The physical cause of mild polar climates (cont.)
11. Interglacial periods in Arctic regions
12. The distribution of flora and fauna in Arctic regions
13. Physical conditions of the Antarctic ice-sheet
14. Physical conditions of the Antarctic ice-sheet (cont.)
15. Regelation as a cause of glacier motion
16. The temperature of space and its bearing on terrestrial physics
17. The probable origin and age of the sun's heat
18. The probable origin and age of the sun's heat (cont.)
19. The probable origin of nebulae
Index.
Subject Areas: Meteorology & climatology [RBP]