Long-Term Changes in Climate

One of the greatest Native American cultures in the American Southwest was the Ancestral Pueblos?

Although weather varies from day to day, climates usually change more quickly.

If plants or animals today need certain conditions to live, then similar plants and animals in the past also required those conditions?

By looking at the pollen present in each layer, scientists can tell what types of animals lived in the area?

From pollen data, scientists can infer that an ancient climate was similar to the climate where the same plants grow today?

Tree rings can be used to learn about ancient climates?

Every winter, a tree grows a new layer of wood just under its bark?

During each ice age, huge sheets of ice called glaciers covered large parts of Earth's surface?

The last ice age ended only about 1,500 years ago?

Possible explanations for major climate changes include variations in the position of Earth relative to the sun, changes in the sun's energy output, major volcanic eruptions, and the movement of the continents?

dark, cooler regions on the surface of the sun

Major volcanic eruptions release huge quantities of gases and ash into the atmosphere?

Have the continents always been located where they are now?

About 225 million years ago, most of the land on Earth was part of a single continent called Pangaea?

Continents that are now near the polar zones were once near the equator?