Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
interpret the conditions under which these world famous shallow water deposits
were formed, he called to mind the similar deposits of shelly sands now being
accumulated on the Dutch coasts especially when driven up by south-westerly
gales. Thus he was brought to a belief in the existence of easterly gales during the
Pliocene epoch, under the action of which shells and other marine organisms were
torn from the sea-bed and thrown up as detrital accumulations on the East Anglian
shores of the North Sea of those times' (Boswell
1940
).
4.4 Conclusion
In view of the herewith presented research by Harmer it was an unfortunate loss to
the development of atmospheric science that his novel approach to palaeometeo-
rology linking past changes of climate with variations in the general circulation, as
depicted by mapping methods, was not followed up during the early years of the
20th century and that it was only in the 1960s that the renowned climatologist,
Professor Hubert H. Lamb (1913-1997), first in the Meteorological Office and later
in the Climatic Research Unit, reintroduced the concept in order to obtain a better
understanding and knowledge of climatic change (Lamb
1966
).
References
Boswell, P.G.H., 1940: ''Climates of the Past: A review of the Geological Evidence'', in:
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 66: 249-274.
Brooks, C.E.P., 1970: Climate Through the Ages: A Study of the Climatic Factors and Their
Variations (New York: Dover Publications).
Dickson, H.N., 1902: ''Mean Temperature of the Atmosphere and the Causes of Glacial Periods'',
in: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 28: 32.
Fleming, J.R., 1998: Charles Lyell and Climate: Speculation and Certainty (London: Special
Publications, Geological Society): 143: 161-169
Harmer, F.W., 1901: ''The Influence of the Winds upon Climate During the Pleistocene Epoch: A
palaeometeorological Explanation of Some Geological Problems'', in: Quarterly Journal of
the Geological Society, 57: 405-476.
Harmer, F.W., 1902: ''A Sketch of the Later Tertiary History of East Anglia'', in: Proceedings of
the Geologists' Association, 17: 416-451.
Harmer, F.W., 1925 (posthumously): ''Further Remarks on the Meteorological Conditions of the
Pleistocene Epoch'', in: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 51: 247-259.
Kington, J.A., 2010: Climate and Weather (London: New Naturalist Library, Collins).
Lamb, H.H., 1966: The Changing Climate (London: Methuen).
Wallace, A.R., 1895: Island Life or the Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras,
Second and revised Edn. (London: Macmillan).
