Puzzle: Ice Ages!

Myr ago

• Occur with a period of ~ 250 million yr

• Cycles of glaciation within the ice age occur with a period of 40,000 yr
• Most recent ice age began ~ 3 million yr ago and is still going on!
Last Glacial Maximum: 18,000 yr ago
32% of land covered with ice
Sea level 120 m lower than now
Cycles of glaciation/deglaciation
–what cause them??
• Milankovitch Hypothesis: they
occur due to cyclic changes in the
summer insolation of Northern
Hemisphere. These cyclic climate
changes are, in turn, due to
variations in the Earth’s orbital
parameters:
– Precession (26,000 yr cycle)
– Eccentricity (varies from 0.00 to 0.06
with 100,000 and 400,000 yr cycles)
– Axis tilt (varies from 24.5o to 22.1o with
41,000 yr cycle
Milutin Milankovitch 1920
 axis

Celestial
equator

As a result, planes of the ecliptic and celestial equator make an angle 23.5o
The axis tilt causes the seasons!!
Drawn for northern latitudes, these are the paths the sun takes across the sky on
the equinoxes and solstices. Can you see that the summer path is longer (and
therefore that the summer sun stays in the sky longer)?
 Seasons - summary
1. Seasons are NOT caused by varying distances from the Earth to the Sun

2. The primary cause of seasons is the 23.5 degree tilt of the

Earth's rotation axis with respect to the plane of the ecliptic.

The Seasons in the Northern Hemisphere

Note: the Earth is actually closest to the Sun in Northern
Hemisphere Winter, on January 4! This reduces seasonal
variations in present epoch.
Perihelion: 147.09 × 106 km; Aphelion: 152.10 × 106 km
26,000 yr cycle
• Varies from 0.00 to 0.06 (currently 0.017)
• Periodicity 100,000 and 400,000 yr
• Eccentricity cycle modulates the amplitude of the precession cycle
As a result, the flux of solar radiation received by
the Earth oscillates with different periodicities and
amplitudes

This triggers changes in climate

 Tmax ~ -30 C
Tmin ~ -90 C

Ice sheet ~ 3500-4000 m thick

Vostok