Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
to occur again, or is it something for which we should prepare? Millions of
current westerners have never even heard of those l oods, much less have any
idea about the potential for another, similar event.
Only by examining the climatic history of the West preserved in its
sediments, trees, landforms, and lakes can we begin to understand whether
these large l ood events have been repeated over centuries or millennia, and,
on the opposite end of the climate spectrum, how large and frequent droughts
were in the past. In the next few chapters, we will explore the evidence reveal-
ing past climate change in the West, including the startling evidence that the
1861-62 l oods and the twentieth-century droughts may not have been the
largest that nature can deliver.
