A Workshop on Deep-Time Paleoclimatology, to be held May 16-17, 2003, Arlington, VA

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A Workshop on Deep-Time Paleoclimatology (EAR-0323841)Gerilyn Soreghan, Christopher Maples, Judith Parrish-JonesABSTRACTEarth's "deep-time" rock record preserves the results of multiple large-scale experiments in environmental change, and extends well into its 4 billion-year history. Although studies of recent climate states can capture a resolution commonly lacking in deep-time studies, they fail to capture the breadth of climate-system behavior. In contrast, deep-time studies showcase environmental disturbances unknown from Earth's modern or recent (2,000,000 yr) record, as well as feedbacks that occur on longer time scales, and in response to different perturbations, than those observable from the recent. Furthermore, significant advances in analytical techniques applicable to deep-time climate studies are enabling researchers to make great strides in our understanding of climate-system behavior. Funds are requested to convene a workshop to discuss the science of deep-time paleoclimatology in order to define those fundamental climate-system problems that can be uniquely studied and understood in deep time. Although some of the processes that can be studied in deep time may exceed human time scales, through feedbacks and thresholds, they can affect those climate processes that do operate on human time scales. Until we can understand these processes, gaps in our ability to understand climate on shorter time scales will remain, contributing to climate-prediction uncertainty. This workshop will contribute to our ultimate understanding and characterization of climate-system dynamics on Earth by initiating a dialogue and recommendations for the future pursuit of deep-time paleoclimatology.