This study provides a comprehensive and quantitative estimate of how global temperatures have changed during the last 540 million years. It combines paleotemperature measurements determined from oxygen isotopes with broader insights obtained from the changing distribution of lithologic indicators of climate, such as coals, evaporites, calcretes, reefs, and bauxite deposits. The waxing and waning of the Earth’s great polar icecaps have been mapped using the past distribution of tillites, dropstones, and glendonites. The global temperature model presented here includes estimates of global average temperate (GAT), changing tropical temperatures (∆T° tropical), deep ocean temperatures, and polar temperatures. Though similar, in many respects, to the temperature history deduced directly from the study of oxygen isotopes, our model does not predict the extreme high temperatures for the Early Paleozoic required by isotopic investigations. The history of global changes in temperature during the Phanerozoic has been summarized in a “paleotemperature timescale” that subdivides the many past climatic events into 8 major climate modes; each climate mode is made up of 3-4 pairs of warming and cooling episodes (chronotemps). A detailed narrative describes how these past temperature events have been affected by geological processes such as the eruption of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPS) (warming) and bolide impacts (cooling). The paleotemperature model presented here allows for a deeper understanding of the interconnected geologic, tectonic, paleoclimatic, paleoceanographic, and evolutionary events that have shaped our planet, and we make explicit predictions about the Earth’s past temperature that can be tested and evaluated. By quantitatively describing the pattern of paleotemperature change through time, we may be able to gain important insights into the history of the Earth System and the fundamental causes of climate change on geological timescales. These insights can help us better understand the problems and challenges that we face as a result of Future Global Warming.

这项研究对过去5.4亿年来全球温度的变化提供了全面而定量的估计。它结合了由氧同位素确定的古温度测量结果和从变化的气候岩性指标分布中获得的更广泛的见识，这些气候指标包括煤，蒸发物，钙质，礁石和铝土矿床。地球上的大极地冰盖的蜡化和消退已根据过去的岩藻，垂石和方钠石分布进行了测绘。此处介绍的全球温度模型包括全球平均温带（GAT），变化的热带温度（ΔT°热带），深海温度和极地温度的估计值。尽管在许多方面与直接由氧同位素研究得出的温度历史相似，我们的模型无法预测同位素研究所需的早古生代的极端高温。上古生代期间全球温度变化的历史总结为“古温度时间尺度”，将过去的许多气候事件细分为8种主要气候模式。每种气候模式都由3-4对变暖和变冷的情节（chronotemps）组成。详细的叙述描述了这些过去的温度事件如何受到地质过程的影响，例如大火成岩省（LIPS）的爆发（变暖）和硼化物撞击（冷却）。这里介绍的古温度模型可以更深入地了解构成我们星球的相互关联的地质，构造，古气候，古海洋学和演化事件，我们对地球过去的温度做出了明确的预测，可以对其进行测试和评估。通过定量描述古温度随时间变化的模式，我们也许可以对地球系统的历史以及地质时标上气候变化的根本原因获得重要的见解。这些见解可以帮助我们更好地了解“未来全球变暖”所面临的问题和挑战。