Palaeoclimatology

Palaeoclimatology, in geology, the study of the Earth's crust, landforms, fossil record, oceanic isotope distributions, and other such physical data in an effort to determine the past history of the planet's climate variations. Such studies also include investigations of the historic record, particularly with the aim of understanding better the effects of human activities on climatic processes. The best-known examples of climate variation are the ice ages; the mechanisms underlying such changes range from continental drift as caused by plate tectonics to the Earth's rotational and orbital cycles.