Shrinking Glaciers: A Chronology of Climate Change

American Museum of Natural History

This video features scientists in New Zealand's Southern Alps, examining samples from the rocky landscape once dominated by glaciers. Their research, combined with other climate records, has revealed a link between glacial retreat and rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air.

Click to View

Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

Educators may want to explore the other Science Bulletin videos on this AMNH page.
The scientists featured in video use a new technique called surface exposure dating, which uses chemical analysis to determine how long minerals within rocks have been exposed to the air since the glaciers around them melted. Comments from expert scientist: Really cool look into how field work and lab work operates! Scientific strengths: - Describes the methodology behind surface exposure dating: Cosmic rays reach the quartz on a rock, the rays breaks apart the silica and oxygen to produce beryllium 10, the rock is analytically sampled for a time in which it was exposed to the atmosphere, thus melting off the glacier. - The scientists are then able to compare glacier melting with CO2 levels increasing