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This video segment continues our examination of climate forcing factors. Here we focus
on internal forcing factors: processes on Earth that influence climate. The major points
of the segment are number one, certain internal forcing factors, progeny, epeirogeny and volcanism
depends on tectonic movements of Earth's crust. Number two, albedo, the percentage of solar
energy reflected varies widely on different natural materials. Number three, Earth exchanges
energy with its surroundings in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Number four, electromagnetic
radiation can be characterized by its wavelength. Five, One-half of the electromagnetic radiation
from the Sun has wavelengths in the visible spectrum. Six, Greenhouse gases in the Earth's
atmosphere are transparent to visible light, but absorb in the infrared.
Internal forcing factors include orogeny, epeirogeny, volcanism, albedo and atmospheric
composition. Often these factors operate in conjunction with one another. For example,
volcanic activity may affect both Earth's albedo and atmospheric composition. The following
introduces each type of internal forcing factor and evaluates their current influence. Orogeny,
Greek for mountain building, is a process in which tectonic movements of Earth's crust
or volcanic activities from mountains. Mountains particularly with a north-south orientation,
for example, the Sierra Nevada, Rocky Mountains, Appalachian Mountains, Andes, and Euros disrupt
global atmospheric circulation patterns, that generally move east-west because of Earth's
rotation. Uplifting of mountains also moves and exposes rock that undergoes chemical weathering
and absorbs carbon dioxide. Moreover, higher elevations accumulate ice and snow that increases
Earth's albedo, the reflections of solar energy. For these reasons times of relatively rapid
mountain building, say 40 million years ago when the Himalayas and Sierra Nevadas first
arose are usually cooler periods.
Epeirogeny is the formation of continents and ocean basins through tectonic deprivations
of earth's crust. As discussed previously, global distributions of land masses determines
the amplitude of glacial/interglacial cycles, and at the extreme may foster a snowball earth.
In addition, mid ocean ridges where most of the new clay material is produced release
large amounts of energy and greenhouse gasses. Moreover, sea levels rise and fall as new
plate materials modify the shape of ocean basins. Orogeny and epeirogeny proceed slowly
over many millions of years. In contrast, volcanism can have an explosive effect on
climate. For example, when Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in June of 1991 after
460 years of inactivity, it spewed vast amounts of sulfur dioxide and fine particles into
the upper atmosphere. These materials quickly spread over most of the world and formed a
haze of aerosols in the stratosphere that reflected enough sunlight to lower global
temperatures by as much as a half a degree Celsius for nearly two years. Volcanic eruptions
as large as Pinatubo, occur only every century or so. But the smaller, yet significant eruptions,
such as Mount Saint Helens and El Chichon occur every decade. All of these eruptions
release carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, as well as
sulfur dioxide and fine particles that reflect some light and contribute to global cooling.
The amount of CO2 released from volcanoes however averages about 10,000 fold less than
from the burning of fossil fuels. Therefore on balance volcanic eruptions cool rather
than warm the planet.