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James Croll (1821–1890): Ice, Ice Ages and the Antarctic Connection DAVID E

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James Croll (1821–1890): Ice, Ice Ages and the Antarctic Connection DAVID E Antarctic Science 26(6), 604–613 (2014) © Antarctic Science Ltd 2014. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:10.1017/S095410201400008X James Croll (1821–1890): ice, ice ages and the Antarctic connection DAVID E. SUGDEN School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, UK [email protected] Abstract: The thrust of this paper is that James Croll should be more generously lauded for his remarkable contribution to the study of ice ages, glacier flow and the nature of the Antarctic ice sheet. Croll was the first to calculate the link between fluctuations of the Earth’s orbit and glacial/interglacial cycles, and to identify the crucial role of positive feedback processes necessary to transform minor insolation changes into major climatic changes. He studied the mechanisms of glacier flow and explained flow over horizontal land surfaces at a continental scale, including the excavation of rock basins. Croll relied on a quantitatively based deductive approach. One of his most remarkable achievements was his study of the thickness, thermal regime and dynamics of the Antarctic ice sheet (1879). This contains important insights, which are relevant today, and yet the paper was published before anyone had landed on the continent! Received 8 October 2013, accepted 5 December 2013 Key words: Antarctic ice sheet, glacier flow Introduction paper On the opinion that the southern hemisphere loses by radiation more heat than the northern, and the supposed I am humbled to be asked to contribute to this special influence this has on climate (1869b). Not content with issue but welcome it as an opportunity to follow up these powerful titles in the field of global geoscience, a discovery at the 11th International Symposium of I could see extra-terrestrial forays such as On the probable Antarctic Earth Sciences (ISAES) in Edinburgh in 2011. origin and age of the sun (1877) and Stellar evolution and In preparation for a welcome to participants I entered the its relations to geological time (1889)! I could only wonder name James Croll into the University of Edinburgh why I knew so little about this remarkable man (Fig. 1). author catalogue. Up came 24 entries with dates ranging The aim of this paper is to focus on Croll’sviewsof from 1864–90. The immediate impression was of modern glacial/interglacial cycles, the connection with Antarctica titles that, if included in a forthcoming programme of and its ice cover, and the way possible changes in Antarctic the American Geophysical Union (AGU) or European ice volume are linked to global sea level. There are also Geophysical Union (EGU), would attract great interest. some reflections on Croll’s approach and methodology, as As a glaciologist, my eye alighted on such titles as On the well as reasons for his fading reputation during his lifetime physical cause of the motion of glaciers (1869a) and On and the relative lack of recognition today. the thickness of Antarctic ice, and its relation to that of the glacial epoch (1879), the latter published before anyone Background had landed on the continent. As a physical geographer interested in the working of the Earth system, I already The life of James Croll is remarkable and it is difficult to recognized the momentous work on the influence of improve on phrases in the opening paragraph of a review orbital fluctuations on climate in the paper entitled On the of his autobiographical sketch (Irons 1896), published in physical cause of the change of climate during geological Nature in 1897. “That a mason’s son, who in youth epochs (1864) and its full development in the classic laboured on the few acres of his father’s homestead; who Climate and time in their geological relations: a theory of then, having a mind disposed to mechanics, became secular changes of the earth’s climate (1875). Here is the apprentice to a millwright; … having sometimes to walk first integrated explanation of how minor changes in solar thirty or forty miles a day to his work, and to sleep in a radiation due to orbital fluctuations are amplified by barn; … found employment in the tea trade, … set up a feedback to cause cycles of glacials and interglacials. temperance hotel in a town, Blairgowrie, of 3500 Hints at the nature of the feedbacks are in titles such as inhabitants, with sixteen inns and public-houses there On the physical causes of ocean-currents (1870a), while already, … who, after a year and a half of failure as an perspective on hemispheric asynchrony comes from the innkeeper, took to canvassing for various insurance 604 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.14, on 26 Sep 2021 at 04:54:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095410201400008X JAMES CROLL: ICE AGES AND ANTARCTICA 605 by accident than by choice that I became a geologist” (Croll, in Irons 1896, p. 14). There were two ‘accidental’ appointments which allowed him access to the latest publications in science and, most important, the time to read and develop his ideas. The first, in 1859 at the age of 38, was to the post of janitor at the museum in what was to become the University of Strathclyde. The second, at the invitation of Archibald Geikie, was to an administrative role in the Geological Survey in Edinburgh in 1867. Whilst in Glasgow he published the famous paper on the role of orbital fluctuations on glacial cycles. In Edinburgh, “the accident of becoming a member of the Geological Survey was of immense advantage to me when I afterwards became engaged in my climatological studies; for it enabled me to become acquainted with geological phenomena necessary for the subject” (Croll, in Irons 1896, p. 14). Croll’s appointment to the Geological Survey was nearly frustrated by the fact that he failed the Civil Service exam in arithmetic and English composition! Lord Kelvin was asked to write in support of his qualifications and in an obituary for Croll he later wrote, “the Civil Service Commissioners, with a wisely liberal relaxation of the rules, accepted his great calculations regarding the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit and the precession of the equinoxes during the last 10,000,000 years as sufficient evidence of his arithmetical capacity, his book … and numerous papers published in scientific journals as proof of his ability to write good English” (Irons 1896, p. 500). Ice ages James Croll is best known for his astronomical theory of Fig. 1. James Croll signed this photo of himself for his friend climatic change. At the time he began his geological work James Campbell Irons, who compiled the Autobiographical in Glasgow there was a vigorous debate among geologists Sketch of James Croll (1896). leading to the conclusion that the unsorted glacial drift or boulder clay so widespread in Scotland and in North companies, where as usual, everything went contrariwise America was deposited by land-based ice sheets, rather with him - that such a man, who thus spent nearly the first than by icebergs during a time of higher relative sea level. forty years of his life, should have become so successful … is The latter view was championed by Charles Lyell, a perhaps not a matter of surprise, seeing that he was a leading geologist of the day, in early versions of his Scotchman” (E.P.C. 1897, p. 362). Remarkably, Croll Manual of elementary geology (Hamlin 1982). Further, published in both philosophy and geology, and indeed he there were surprising fossil discoveries indicating warm regarded his work on the former as his main contribution climatic conditions within the glacial deposits pointing to (Finnegan 2012). interglacial episodes (Geikie 1863). Croll (1864) was the The auspices for the world of geoscience were not first person to develop a hypothesis that minor orbital bright when James Croll began to study. As he wrote fluctuations in the amount and distribution of solar about school, “I must say I was rather a dull scholar, radiation received by the Earth, due to eccentricity and scarcely up to the average of boys of the same age” (Croll, the resulting precession of the equinoxes, could trigger in Irons 1896, p. 12). Further, as he began his scientific feedback processes that could lead to cyclic glacial and work he noted, “There were two important and, to most interglacial states. Together these fluctuations modify people, interesting sciences for which I had no relish, both the length of a winter/summer season and the namely, chemistry and geology, more particularly the intensity of insolation received each season in both latter … Had anyone told me that one day I should hemispheres. Croll used Leverrier’s tables of orbital become a professional geologist, I would have regarded fluctuations to calculate the age of past glaciations and the statement as incredible. In truth, it was more to predict future ice ages, the first attempt to derive a Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.14, on 26 Sep 2021 at 04:54:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095410201400008X 606 DAVID E. SUGDEN Fig. 2. Prediction of the variation in eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit calculated by Croll using Leverrier’s formula. Lower panel. The vertical line marked zero in the centre represents the year 1880 and the predictions to the right are for the next one million years.
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