1. GEOG5426 Past climates, past societies

2. By November 3
[Tentative] list of 10 articles related to
your region and time period.

3. November 24
Brief (15-minute) summaries of project topics.
(1) What are the most important features of the modern
climate in your region?
(2) What proxies are available in your region, over the time
interval specified? How are they related to climate? and
(3) How different were past climates from modern
conditions? Why is that important?

4. Scientists are sometimes like American tourists;
[we] think that if we just speak English loud enough,
people will understand us.
“
Kevin Finneram, editor in chief
Issues in Science and Technology

5. Tip #1
Use images, not text

9. Hear a piece of information,
and three days later you'll
remember 10% of it.
Add a picture and you'll
remember 65%.”
“
John Medina

11. LOWfrequency

13. Tip #2
Design for the back row

17. Make It BIG

18. Make It

19. Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• Lake Winnipeg is the 11th largest
freshwater lake in the world
• The lake’s watershed includes
territory in Alberta, Saskatchewan,
Manitoba, Ontario, Minnesota and
North Dakota
• Its tributaries include the
Saskatchewan, Red, Winnipeg and
Assiniboine Rivers.
• The lake drains northward into the
Nelson River and contributes to
Hudson Bay.
Photograph of Lake Winnipeg from Gimli, Manitoba

21. St. George et al.,The Holocene, 2010

22. St. George et al.,The Holocene, 2010

23. Anatomical signatures from riparian trees can be used to extend flood records by
several hundred years.
Flood hazards and tree rings
In the Red River basin, shifts in annual precipitation of roughly ten percent
altered flood risks significantly during the last 350 years. Geological processes
are not affecting flood hazards at relevant timescales.
The current design flood for the Red River valley was produced by an exceptional
combination of extensive flooding in the northeastern Great Plains and unusual
spring weather across central North America.
Paleoflood Records for the
Red River, Manitoba, Canada

24. characteristics of D2M‘hotspots’
Not correlated with major modes
Do not track SST anomalies
Are not synchronized with each other
✘
✘
✘

25. Tip #3
Get to the point

26. The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.”
“ Voltaire

28. MURDER
YOUR
DARLINGS.
“
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
”

30. “I’m more important that the next speaker.”
“I’m more important than this session.”
“I’m more important than my audience.”
What going over time really means

31. Strive for continual improvement

32. You must unlearn what you have learned.”
“ Yoda

34. www.presentationzen.com

35. M EGADROUGHT
intensity at least equivalent to modern multiyear droughts
duration longer than the several years to decade thereof
Seager et al., Journal of Climate, 2008

36. Red River floods

37. Red River valley

38. AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Lt. Brendan Evans

39. DaKohlmeyer

43. River diversion
Main channel
Winnipeg
population: 680,000
Photograph: Greg Brooks

44. why are Red River floods so severe?

45. why are Red River floods so severe?
geology &climate history!

54. Level of Lake Winnipeg (metres)

56. We do not think that the country below Fort Garry will
ever be flooded again for experience shows clearly that
each successive flood has indicated far less depth of
the plains that its predecessors – a fact fully accounted
by the rapid widening of the river channel.
“
”Anonymous, 1861

58. Brooks (2003) Geomorphology

60. how o en does the Red River flood?

64. Photograph: Greg Brooks
Red River
Manitoba

65. 2008

66. 1875

67. Photo: Erik Nielsen

68. Photo: Erik Nielsen

70. 67
Photo: Erik Nielsen

71. Photo: Erik Nielsen

73. 70
St.. George and Nielsen,The Holocene, 2003
Normal growth
Flood damaged

74. St. George and Nielsen, The Holocene, 2003
350 years of Red River floods

75. The forts now stand like a castle of romance in the midst of
an ocean of deep contending currents, the water extending
for at least a mile behind them, and they are thereby only
approachable by boats and canoes.”
“
Francis Heron
Hudson Bay Company, 1826
St.. George and Rannie, CanadianWater Resources Journal, 2003

77. 74
Winnipeg floodway
expansion

78. GEOG5426 Past climates, past societies

79. Climate and the collapse of the Mayan Civilization
Haug et al., Science, 2003

80. Intertropical Convergence Zone
The region where the northeasterly and southeasterly
trade winds converge, forming an o en continuous band
of clouds or thunderstorms near the equator.
National Weather Service

82. Photo: f-l-e-x

83. Photo: Celso Flores

84. Photo: npa erson

85. Haug et al., Science, 2003

86. Haug et al., Science, 2003

88. Aztec drought and “The Curse of One Rabbit”
Therrell et al., BMAS, 2004

89. Therrell et al., BAMS, 2004

90. Therrell et al., BAMS, 2004

91. photo: Howard Arno

92. Therrell et al., BAMS, 2004

93. Therrell et al., BAMS, 2004

94. November 10
Statistics in Paleoclimate