Table of historic and prehistoric climate indicators

| Geological

| Annual bands of seasonally differing particle size in glacial lake deposits

| Samples carry Proxies. Thicker bands = warmer, wetter weather

| Visual and Microscope

| ca 13,000 yrs BP

| Biological

| Annual bands of seasonally differing woody growth tissue in trees

| Thicker bands = warmer and/or wetter weather, although some studies found thinner trunks for higher temperatures http://treephys.oxfordjournals.org/content/30/6/669.full.pdf+html | "The median values for height, stem diameter and all biomass measurements at elevated growth temperatures were always near 1 for evergreens, indicating that for every study that found increased growth with warming, there were a similar number that found a decrease "

| Visual and Microscope

| ca 10,000 yrs BP

| Geological

| Annual (or periodic) layers of differing ice crystals in glaciers and ice caps

| Samples carry Proxies. Thicker bands = snowier weather

| Chemical and Mass Spectrometer

| ca 800,000 yrs BP

| Geological

| Layers of seasonally differing stalagmite/stalactite deposits in limestone caves

| Samples carry Proxies. Thicker bands = warmer, wetter surface weather

| Visual and Microscope

| ca 500,000 yrs BP

| Astronomical

| Number of spots visible on the surface of the Sun over various periods

| More spots = warmer weather cycles (this is controversial)

| Visual and Telescope

| 1700 AD

| Geochemical Climate Proxy

| Ratio of Oxygen-18 to Oxygen-16 in calcite from deep sea sediment, and coral cores

| More Oxygen-18 = colder climatic periods

| Mass Spectrometer

| ca 542,000,000 yrs BP

| Geochemical Climate Proxy

| Ratio of Beryllium-10 to daughter isotopes in dust from ice cores

| Produced in atmosphere by cosmic rays and absorbed into the hydrologic cycle. Level of Beryllium-10 has been shown to closely match recent solar activity measured by sun spots

| Mass Spectrometer

| ca 80,000 yrs BP